Having watched CCTV news, which I assume is the much talked about CCP rival of CCN, I can say that CCN has nothing to worry about. Even the most basic criteria for success has not been fullfilled. Apart from baby faced James Chau, who looks and speaks like an english public school boy with who has just finished his GCSEs, the presenters do not speak clear, grammatical English, so that listening to the channel is tiring and confusing. After a few minutes, I stopped trying to follow them and switched to playing "count the grammatical mistakes". I don't imagine my friends in England who can't even be bothered to read subtitles will have patience. It looks like another huge white elephant aimed to make the Chinese leaders feel good about themselves, and bolster their ridiculous claims that China is becoming a great nation under their glorious leadership.
Chinese leaders seem to live on another planet, where foreigners who speak bad English get jobs as news reporters on an international English language news channel, and consumers will listen to them, because they have no choice. But foreigners have lots of choice, and very few will choose to listen to this channel.
Even the talents of James Chau are wasted when reads out things like "the talks ( between the leaders of Japan, Korea and China) set the tone for their relationship over the next ten years".
2010年5月30日 星期日
2010年5月21日 星期五
Shanxi vaccine scandal whistle blower sacked
Last week, Bao Yueyang (包月阳), Editor of China Economic Times (中国经济时报) was forced to resign for the publicising of the non-refrigeration of vaccines which led to at least 4 children's deaths. Ironically, the vaccines had been deliberately left unrefrigerated to prevent stickers displaying the government's quality assurance from peeling off.
Inevitably the case was compared to others who have attempted to publicise government failures to protect children's lives, including the "tofu schools" which collapse in earthquakes, the poorly policed schools were children are stabbed, and the inspection-exemption milk companies whose product damaged the kidneys of thousands of babies.
In several of these case, those who publicise the case have themselves become victims.
For example, Tang Zuoren was sentenced for five years for counting the victims of jerry-built schools ( although the court prosecuted him for writing an essay about the June 4th 1989 massacre, as this was a more presumably a acceptable reason for locking him up). Parents have also been detained and put under surveillance for attempting to petition the higher authorities.
After organising and publicising the "kidney stone babies", Zhao Hailian was arrested and tried in March for for inciting social upheaval. During his trial he was shackled at the ankles. The verdict was not announced.
Inevitably the case was compared to others who have attempted to publicise government failures to protect children's lives, including the "tofu schools" which collapse in earthquakes, the poorly policed schools were children are stabbed, and the inspection-exemption milk companies whose product damaged the kidneys of thousands of babies.
In several of these case, those who publicise the case have themselves become victims.
For example, Tang Zuoren was sentenced for five years for counting the victims of jerry-built schools ( although the court prosecuted him for writing an essay about the June 4th 1989 massacre, as this was a more presumably a acceptable reason for locking him up). Parents have also been detained and put under surveillance for attempting to petition the higher authorities.
After organising and publicising the "kidney stone babies", Zhao Hailian was arrested and tried in March for for inciting social upheaval. During his trial he was shackled at the ankles. The verdict was not announced.
2010年5月20日 星期四
Tudou deletes 100,000 videos per month
From the Inquirer, May 17 2010: China's Great Firewall is a barrier to trade;Tudou officials pointed out that it adheres to government censorship regulations, and said it deletes 100,000 videos every month for content that involves pornography or politics. Tudou is a video upload site like Youtube, which has been blocked in China.
Censorship is market grab, according to Beijing bloggers
The SCMP reports comments today from Chinese bloggers Michael Anti and Jason Ng:
Michael Anti, a Beijing-based internet analyst, said he believed the various crackdowns on mainland websites in the past few years, no matter whether they targeted pornography, geographical information or search engines like Google, were not related to tighter political censorship but to officials' desire to cash in on the internet.
He said officials were using their censorship powers to make money.
"All departments are working hard to find their own opportunities for rent-seeking from censoring online information, and using political excuses," he said. "It is their business; licences [issued to the websites] mean money."
Jason Ng, another Beijing-based blogger, who launched the mainland's first independent survey of attempts to surmount the "Great Firewall of China", said he regarded the crackdown on online map websites as another example of the "development of state-owned enterprises and the receding of privately owned enterprises".
"They've found opportunities to make money from the internet's location-based services, and the crackdown on online map servers will become more strict," he said.
According to the latest standard, issued by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping last week, qualified online map service providers must have their servers on the mainland and must not have leaked information in any form in the past three years.
Long agreed, saying: "After cleaning up the privately owned servers, the state-owned ones can enter the huge online map market, which will be very profitable in the future."
Meanwhile, according to business week, the EEC is reportedly considering action in the WTO against censorship, but most countries are scared of tackling China.
Here is the text of the SCMP article
Censored: the map website accused of leaking site of PLA HK barracks
Ivan Zhai
Updated on May 20, 2010
Authorities have censored a Shenzhen-based online forum accused of leaking the locations of military facilities like airports, naval bases and the PLA's Hong Kong barracks, as well as providing access to Google Earth.
William Long, the forum administrator at Moon-bbs.com, was accused of linking its contents to a "foreign internet map search engine" in a report by China Central Television on Monday night. The report also said the forum had revealed the location of a military airport before it was officially reported in October.
Long, a prominent mainland blogger, told the South China Morning Post yesterday the foreign search engine was Google Earth. He said he was asked to pay a fine of 5,000 yuan (HK$5,710) for "illegally showing maps" produced by Shenzhen's land supervision authorities, which he thought was unfair.
Beijing's efforts to tighten control of online information have spread to online map services recently. The People's Daily website, People. com.cn, revealed this week that more than 200 websites had been shut down since January last year in a campaign to regulate sites providing geographic information.
It said a joint working group established by seven state departments - the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of State Security, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Press and Publications, State Secrets Bureau and the Surveying and Mapping Bureau of the People's Liberation Army's General Staff Department - had investigated more than 40,000 online map websites and censored the content of about 1,000 websites, some 30 of which were found to involve military information and the rest to contain inappropriate information.
Long denied CCTV's accusation that his forum "was an online community frequented by military fans".
"I am not a military fan myself," he said in an article posted on his personal blog a few hours after seeing the CCTV programme. "I have not read any military magazines, have not been to any military bases and have very limited military knowledge."
It is not the first time Beijing-controlled media have attacked services provided by Google. The United States-based search giant was accused by the same TV programme last year of providing a large number of links to pornographic websites.
Google's run-ins with the mainland authorities led it to close its simplified-Chinese internet search service on the mainland in March.
Long said he understood why the mainland authorities did not like services such as Google Earth.
"Everyone can freely mark information about buildings, even the houses of some top leaders and other so-called secrets, and share them at Google Earth; that's why they want to control such behaviour," he said.
But Long and other mainland internet analysts and bloggers interviewed yesterday said the main motive behind the government crackdown was commercial.
Michael Anti, a Beijing-based internet analyst, said he believed the various crackdowns on mainland websites in the past few years, no matter whether they targeted pornography, geographical information or search engines like Google, were not related to tighter political censorship but to officials' desire to cash in on the internet.
He said officials were using their censorship powers to make money.
"All departments are working hard to find their own opportunities for rent-seeking from censoring online information, and using political excuses," he said. "It is their business; licences [issued to the websites] mean money."
Jason Ng, another Beijing-based blogger, who launched the mainland's first independent survey of attempts to surmount the "Great Firewall of China", said he regarded the crackdown on online map websites as another example of the "development of state-owned enterprises and the receding of privately owned enterprises".
"They've found opportunities to make money from the internet's location-based services, and the crackdown on online map servers will become more strict," he said.
According to the latest standard, issued by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping last week, qualified online map service providers must have their servers on the mainland and must not have leaked information in any form in the past three years.
Long agreed, saying: "After cleaning up the privately owned servers, the state-owned ones can enter the huge online map market, which will be very profitable in the future."
Copyright © 2010 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All right reserved
Michael Anti, a Beijing-based internet analyst, said he believed the various crackdowns on mainland websites in the past few years, no matter whether they targeted pornography, geographical information or search engines like Google, were not related to tighter political censorship but to officials' desire to cash in on the internet.
He said officials were using their censorship powers to make money.
"All departments are working hard to find their own opportunities for rent-seeking from censoring online information, and using political excuses," he said. "It is their business; licences [issued to the websites] mean money."
Jason Ng, another Beijing-based blogger, who launched the mainland's first independent survey of attempts to surmount the "Great Firewall of China", said he regarded the crackdown on online map websites as another example of the "development of state-owned enterprises and the receding of privately owned enterprises".
"They've found opportunities to make money from the internet's location-based services, and the crackdown on online map servers will become more strict," he said.
According to the latest standard, issued by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping last week, qualified online map service providers must have their servers on the mainland and must not have leaked information in any form in the past three years.
Long agreed, saying: "After cleaning up the privately owned servers, the state-owned ones can enter the huge online map market, which will be very profitable in the future."
Meanwhile, according to business week, the EEC is reportedly considering action in the WTO against censorship, but most countries are scared of tackling China.
Here is the text of the SCMP article
Censored: the map website accused of leaking site of PLA HK barracks
Ivan Zhai
Updated on May 20, 2010
Authorities have censored a Shenzhen-based online forum accused of leaking the locations of military facilities like airports, naval bases and the PLA's Hong Kong barracks, as well as providing access to Google Earth.
William Long, the forum administrator at Moon-bbs.com, was accused of linking its contents to a "foreign internet map search engine" in a report by China Central Television on Monday night. The report also said the forum had revealed the location of a military airport before it was officially reported in October.
Long, a prominent mainland blogger, told the South China Morning Post yesterday the foreign search engine was Google Earth. He said he was asked to pay a fine of 5,000 yuan (HK$5,710) for "illegally showing maps" produced by Shenzhen's land supervision authorities, which he thought was unfair.
Beijing's efforts to tighten control of online information have spread to online map services recently. The People's Daily website, People. com.cn, revealed this week that more than 200 websites had been shut down since January last year in a campaign to regulate sites providing geographic information.
It said a joint working group established by seven state departments - the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of State Security, State Administration for Industry and Commerce, General Administration of Press and Publications, State Secrets Bureau and the Surveying and Mapping Bureau of the People's Liberation Army's General Staff Department - had investigated more than 40,000 online map websites and censored the content of about 1,000 websites, some 30 of which were found to involve military information and the rest to contain inappropriate information.
Long denied CCTV's accusation that his forum "was an online community frequented by military fans".
"I am not a military fan myself," he said in an article posted on his personal blog a few hours after seeing the CCTV programme. "I have not read any military magazines, have not been to any military bases and have very limited military knowledge."
It is not the first time Beijing-controlled media have attacked services provided by Google. The United States-based search giant was accused by the same TV programme last year of providing a large number of links to pornographic websites.
Google's run-ins with the mainland authorities led it to close its simplified-Chinese internet search service on the mainland in March.
Long said he understood why the mainland authorities did not like services such as Google Earth.
"Everyone can freely mark information about buildings, even the houses of some top leaders and other so-called secrets, and share them at Google Earth; that's why they want to control such behaviour," he said.
But Long and other mainland internet analysts and bloggers interviewed yesterday said the main motive behind the government crackdown was commercial.
Michael Anti, a Beijing-based internet analyst, said he believed the various crackdowns on mainland websites in the past few years, no matter whether they targeted pornography, geographical information or search engines like Google, were not related to tighter political censorship but to officials' desire to cash in on the internet.
He said officials were using their censorship powers to make money.
"All departments are working hard to find their own opportunities for rent-seeking from censoring online information, and using political excuses," he said. "It is their business; licences [issued to the websites] mean money."
Jason Ng, another Beijing-based blogger, who launched the mainland's first independent survey of attempts to surmount the "Great Firewall of China", said he regarded the crackdown on online map websites as another example of the "development of state-owned enterprises and the receding of privately owned enterprises".
"They've found opportunities to make money from the internet's location-based services, and the crackdown on online map servers will become more strict," he said.
According to the latest standard, issued by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping last week, qualified online map service providers must have their servers on the mainland and must not have leaked information in any form in the past three years.
Long agreed, saying: "After cleaning up the privately owned servers, the state-owned ones can enter the huge online map market, which will be very profitable in the future."
Copyright © 2010 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All right reserved
NYT: Foreigners fear China and self-censor more than Chinese
In a NYT reviewtitled "Censors Without Borders" May 6, 2010, EMILY PARKER
describes how foreign writers and academics are increasingly self-censoring to avoid risking their relationship with China's ruling party.
Most interestingly, she notes that Westerners are self-censoring even more than the Chinese, because they understand the risks even less than the Chinese. She quotes an academic anonymously, who claims all western academics self-censor - "collectively are compromising our academic ideals in order to gain access to China". And the pressure to do seems to have increased in recent years. "Suddenly we’re all Hong Kong, where no one wants to offend the mainland because it’s too close" says another academic. And yet, living in Hong Kong, I am daily reminded by the best selling Apple Daily that speaking out and refusing to self-censor is not just feasible, it is the best policy for publishers who want to make money outside the mainland and are not beholden to China for other business.
It is strange that westerners should be so nervous. After all, they generally have less to lose than Chinese, and China has a neijinwaisong policy; in recent years it has rarely locked up westerners up or tortured them, all though there are exceptions, such as the American geologist Xue Feng
describes how foreign writers and academics are increasingly self-censoring to avoid risking their relationship with China's ruling party.
Most interestingly, she notes that Westerners are self-censoring even more than the Chinese, because they understand the risks even less than the Chinese. She quotes an academic anonymously, who claims all western academics self-censor - "collectively are compromising our academic ideals in order to gain access to China". And the pressure to do seems to have increased in recent years. "Suddenly we’re all Hong Kong, where no one wants to offend the mainland because it’s too close" says another academic. And yet, living in Hong Kong, I am daily reminded by the best selling Apple Daily that speaking out and refusing to self-censor is not just feasible, it is the best policy for publishers who want to make money outside the mainland and are not beholden to China for other business.
It is strange that westerners should be so nervous. After all, they generally have less to lose than Chinese, and China has a neijinwaisong policy; in recent years it has rarely locked up westerners up or tortured them, all though there are exceptions, such as the American geologist Xue Feng
2010年5月19日 星期三
China's Business Weekly is closed for rectification
China‘s Business Weekly (中国商务周刊) has been closed for a month after publishings about the increasing monopoly of the Chinese electricity net. Li Peng has been criticised in the past by party elders for treating China's electricity net as his personal fiefdom, and putting his two children in charge. Source RFA
With Zhu Houze's death passes the last hope for reform within the CCP
Recently Zhu Houze died; he had been head of the Central Propaganda Department from 1985-1987 and a progressive who fell from power after the June 4th massacre. Trends magazine - which is banned in China - described his memorial service as a memorial to lost hopes for political reform:
Zhu Houze has taken with him the last hope of the Communist Party.
Zhu Houze's memorial service on the 11th of May was a rare and grand occasion with a style all of its own. The attendees lost no time in spreading the news from mouth to mouth, and everybody who should have been present turned up. Some described it as the largest meeting of democrats, including both system insiders and outsiders, in the 21 years since the June 4th massacre. Sadness at the departure of Zhu Houze mingled oddly with happiness as old friends renewed acquaintances, giving the occasion a special flavour. More importantly, they were saying goodbye to an era, to hopes which they had once held: Zhu Houze was a leading democratic thinker within the Chinese Communist Party; while Li Rui, Hu Zewei and others were also important democratic leaders within the Communist Party, Zhu's thinking on the existing system, on changing society, on China's future as well as on constitutional democracy within human civilisation was the most advanced. In an anti-intellectual, a reactionary one-party dictatorship, his theoretical training, strategic vision and maintenance of personal integrity despite the forces of the political whirlpool were beyond what most people can hope to achieve. He was considered to have combined the best qualities of both Hu Yaobang and Zhao Zeyang; he had Hu's selflessness, innovativeness and courage and Zhao's sharp wits，adaptability and prudence, so naturally he was seen as hope for the democratic faction within the Communist Party.
Before he died, Hu Yaobang said: "I don't care about my on resignation, I just feel that I have let down two people, that's Zhu Houze and Bai Jinian. Because Zhu Houze is someone who could have been General Secretary." Zhu Houze and Hu Yaobang were very close; in a manuscript commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang, Zhu Houze wrote: " Comrade Hu Yaobang always complied with Communist Party organisational discipline but in his later years, his ideas were always ahead of other people, he truly and sincerely strove for reform, and adopted every possible method and even compromise to promose a transition, you could say he really spared no efforts...Hu Yaobang was the last person who tried to attempt a breakthrough within the traditional system without turning his back on the rules." The same could be said of Zhu Houze himself.
In the 20 years following the June 4 massacre, Zhu Houze and the ideas which he advocated were frozen; although Zhu Houze had already refocused his energy on to the (problems of) the lower levels of society, to constantly changing new technology and to the environment, the unstinting interest group in Zhongnanhai ( ie Chinas top leaders) complained that he was a nuisance and so he was hated, put under surveillance and prevented from travelling abroad; even after he died they insisted on covering his coffin with a Communist Party flag; Zhu Houze's whole spirit and body was unfailingly castigated and consumed by them. It's unfortunate that somebody so talented was shoved aside and those with far less ability took command.
Zhu Houze once said, " I'm somebody who grew up with revolutionary work, practically my entire life has been spent in the struggle, but the cruellest struggle did not come from the KMT, it came from within the Communist Party. The Communist Party's struggle against its own members is the most harsh, Chinese people's struggle against Chinese people is the harshest". Shortly before his death he raised his grave doubts about the cruel struggle and sacrifice of human rights of the so-called " Chinese Model" and forecast that this would become a great controversy in the 21st-century.
What made Zhu Houze different to others is that he had a very clear knowledge about himself and the Communist party's democratic faction and he warned " the survival of us old folks (meaning those inclined towards political reform) gives young people hope, but in fact there is no hope". He emphasised this saying: " There is no hope. The hope which you see is because you see us old folks are still alive so you have these fantasies. But we ourselves no longer have such fantasies." Some people describe this as Zhu's last political testament.
With the departure of Zhu Houze, all hope for political reform in China and all hope of internal democratisation within the Communist party is irrevocably destroyed. Hope that this system can improve itself and can transform itself is completely destroyed. Hopes that people like Hu Yaobang, Zhao Zhiyang and Zhu Houze can turn the tide with their herculean efforts is also lost. This is not just the tragedy of Zhu Houze, it is the tragedy of China and the whole world which has been kidnapped by the Communist Party. It is not surprising that someone was heard to sigh at the hemorial service: "I I fear this is the last meeting of its kind".
This is a translation of an editorial from this month's Trends Magazine.
Zhu Houze has taken with him the last hope of the Communist Party.
Zhu Houze's memorial service on the 11th of May was a rare and grand occasion with a style all of its own. The attendees lost no time in spreading the news from mouth to mouth, and everybody who should have been present turned up. Some described it as the largest meeting of democrats, including both system insiders and outsiders, in the 21 years since the June 4th massacre. Sadness at the departure of Zhu Houze mingled oddly with happiness as old friends renewed acquaintances, giving the occasion a special flavour. More importantly, they were saying goodbye to an era, to hopes which they had once held: Zhu Houze was a leading democratic thinker within the Chinese Communist Party; while Li Rui, Hu Zewei and others were also important democratic leaders within the Communist Party, Zhu's thinking on the existing system, on changing society, on China's future as well as on constitutional democracy within human civilisation was the most advanced. In an anti-intellectual, a reactionary one-party dictatorship, his theoretical training, strategic vision and maintenance of personal integrity despite the forces of the political whirlpool were beyond what most people can hope to achieve. He was considered to have combined the best qualities of both Hu Yaobang and Zhao Zeyang; he had Hu's selflessness, innovativeness and courage and Zhao's sharp wits，adaptability and prudence, so naturally he was seen as hope for the democratic faction within the Communist Party.
Before he died, Hu Yaobang said: "I don't care about my on resignation, I just feel that I have let down two people, that's Zhu Houze and Bai Jinian. Because Zhu Houze is someone who could have been General Secretary." Zhu Houze and Hu Yaobang were very close; in a manuscript commemorating the 20th anniversary of the death of Hu Yaobang, Zhu Houze wrote: " Comrade Hu Yaobang always complied with Communist Party organisational discipline but in his later years, his ideas were always ahead of other people, he truly and sincerely strove for reform, and adopted every possible method and even compromise to promose a transition, you could say he really spared no efforts...Hu Yaobang was the last person who tried to attempt a breakthrough within the traditional system without turning his back on the rules." The same could be said of Zhu Houze himself.
In the 20 years following the June 4 massacre, Zhu Houze and the ideas which he advocated were frozen; although Zhu Houze had already refocused his energy on to the (problems of) the lower levels of society, to constantly changing new technology and to the environment, the unstinting interest group in Zhongnanhai ( ie Chinas top leaders) complained that he was a nuisance and so he was hated, put under surveillance and prevented from travelling abroad; even after he died they insisted on covering his coffin with a Communist Party flag; Zhu Houze's whole spirit and body was unfailingly castigated and consumed by them. It's unfortunate that somebody so talented was shoved aside and those with far less ability took command.
Zhu Houze once said, " I'm somebody who grew up with revolutionary work, practically my entire life has been spent in the struggle, but the cruellest struggle did not come from the KMT, it came from within the Communist Party. The Communist Party's struggle against its own members is the most harsh, Chinese people's struggle against Chinese people is the harshest". Shortly before his death he raised his grave doubts about the cruel struggle and sacrifice of human rights of the so-called " Chinese Model" and forecast that this would become a great controversy in the 21st-century.
What made Zhu Houze different to others is that he had a very clear knowledge about himself and the Communist party's democratic faction and he warned " the survival of us old folks (meaning those inclined towards political reform) gives young people hope, but in fact there is no hope". He emphasised this saying: " There is no hope. The hope which you see is because you see us old folks are still alive so you have these fantasies. But we ourselves no longer have such fantasies." Some people describe this as Zhu's last political testament.
With the departure of Zhu Houze, all hope for political reform in China and all hope of internal democratisation within the Communist party is irrevocably destroyed. Hope that this system can improve itself and can transform itself is completely destroyed. Hopes that people like Hu Yaobang, Zhao Zhiyang and Zhu Houze can turn the tide with their herculean efforts is also lost. This is not just the tragedy of Zhu Houze, it is the tragedy of China and the whole world which has been kidnapped by the Communist Party. It is not surprising that someone was heard to sigh at the hemorial service: "I I fear this is the last meeting of its kind".
This is a translation of an editorial from this month's Trends Magazine.
2010年5月18日 星期二
Translation of some of Yuan Tengfei's comments on youtube
These videos have been censored and I can't find them with subtitles; here are my subtitles for one of his most controversial videos:
If you take China's population figures for 1959-1961
And subtract the normal mortality figures
And remove the "abnormal deaths"
You'll find that the China had negative population growth
People were so hungry they had no energy for procreation
Go home and ask your grand parents
In those days if you picked up a gnawed corn cob you were lucky
Or a cabbage root
People's heads were swollen from malnutrition
There is an old lady in my courtyard
her husband hanged himself
because he lost 30 grain tickets. That's how much life was worth then
People even starved to death in the cities
They did not just starve to death in the countryside
I've read the Communist Party's books about this period and figured it out
So by all means go and look at Mao's mausoleum, but remember it's China's Yasakuni shrine
Remember that the person in their has the blood of the people all over his hands
You can say the corpse is a fakeYou can visit, but don't worship Mao
I have been to the Yasakuni shrine
But you should not worship Mao
If you worship him you are a fascists
Personally I never go to Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen give me the creeps - 40 million people died
There should be a memorial there to the victims of the regime who died from 1949-1978
But don't repeat this; if you do, I'll deny I said it, China is not that liberal yet
If you take China's population figures for 1959-1961
And subtract the normal mortality figures
And remove the "abnormal deaths"
You'll find that the China had negative population growth
People were so hungry they had no energy for procreation
Go home and ask your grand parents
In those days if you picked up a gnawed corn cob you were lucky
Or a cabbage root
People's heads were swollen from malnutrition
There is an old lady in my courtyard
her husband hanged himself
because he lost 30 grain tickets. That's how much life was worth then
People even starved to death in the cities
They did not just starve to death in the countryside
I've read the Communist Party's books about this period and figured it out
So by all means go and look at Mao's mausoleum, but remember it's China's Yasakuni shrine
Remember that the person in their has the blood of the people all over his hands
You can say the corpse is a fakeYou can visit, but don't worship Mao
I have been to the Yasakuni shrine
But you should not worship Mao
If you worship him you are a fascists
Personally I never go to Tiananmen Square
Tiananmen give me the creeps - 40 million people died
There should be a memorial there to the victims of the regime who died from 1949-1978
But don't repeat this; if you do, I'll deny I said it, China is not that liberal yet
2010年5月16日 星期日
Han Han blogs about Yuan Tengfei :"Those spring onions which never get clean"
This is my corrected version of Han Han's recent blog post in which he comments on the fear of ideological discipline and the duty of teachers to their students.
Recently, Fujian released ten regulations on higher education. Of these, people focused mostly on the second regulation, which stipulated that: if in the course of teaching, educators spread erroneous statements in violation of the Party line, principles, policies, basic theory, or national laws and regulations, thereby adversely impacting students’ establishment of correct ideology and political beliefs, a “one-vote veto” will be carried out, and the offender will be dismissed.
What was comforting to me was that is that when I saw the regulations, I first thought they were implementing a policy of “executed with one shot,” but in fact it’s only “one vote veto” --much more advanced than in Mao Zedong’s time. As for what type of person can cast this one vote, I really don’t care. I only care that these principles, policies, and basic theories are really difficult to grasp. Those in power require ideological unity from all of us, but often they themselves are incapable of ideological unity. When I was young, I vaguely recall that my high school textbook talked about the separation of powers, and that my political textbook and politics teachers all said that separation of powers is a good thing. But recently, I keep seeing essays and statements from officials saying that the separation of powers is wrong. You know that I only have a high school diploma; my politics courses stopped at high school. I just feel very perplexed. I am worried what will happen to those teachers and textbook editors who spread those erroneous ideas. They are always reading the documents the leaders gave them; if they make a mistake, they will be disciplined by the authorities, simply because they were reading last night's documents- when their leaders woke up this morning, they changed their ideas.
I read somewhere pithy description of what this feels like …a man gets in a car, signals to turn right, but actually turns left, and then unexpectedly does a U-turn. If you are unlucky you can get killed by such a driver.
News reporters who search for the truth; history teachers who narrate history; authors and scholars who write a little truth; movie directors who film reality; some cases are treated as ideological errors; serious cases are treated as crime. But as soon this happens, people start speculating: was so-and-so taken for questioning by the police, or were they censored or arrested? In the end, even though often nothing really bad happened to the person- at most the "criminal evidence" has been deleted - people still feel worried about themselves. They feel that maybe that person was let off because he was too well known, so the government was hesitant to take action - whereas in my case would the government have those kind of concerns? What kind of deeply rooted image is this? How do things come to such a pass?
In any age, brains are washed just like vegetables, and there are always a few onions that just won’t come clean. Before, people wanted to cut the dirty heads off these onions to make them clean, but as times changed, people only expect those few dirty onions to mind their own business without spreading their dirty ideas. If they do try to tell other onions, they will immediately be pulped.
Many people believe that the document was sent out by the Fujian Education Bureau because there have recently been a few history teachers and university professors with pretty big mouths. Of course, I also saw today’s news. It is said that history teacher Yuan Tengfei is being disciplined, the same day Tianshangrenjian nightclub was being closed. But I believe it’s not due to these [political] reasons. When the Sensitive Department has not given orders, the government doesn’t respond so rapidly, nor do departments coordinate this well. It is just a coincidence, a routine regulation of the Department of Education. Every sector has regulations like this, it’s just expressed differently. It’s like all lotteries have the same rules, but it's up to the lottery organizer to decide how to explain them. But I don’t want to probe into who or what has the power to pass judgment on whether another person’s thoughts are correct or incorrect. This type of topic is meaningless, because it is obvious who has this power. Of course, powerful people have the power. Anything that benefits their interests and power is, of course, correct; anything that doesn’t benefits their interests or power is, of course, wrong. As long as you master this rule, you don’t have to worry about what is a right or wrong judgment.
To the majority of history, language, and political science teachers: what sort of future role do you see yourself playing in the teaching of history, language, and politics? How do you think you will be appraised? Perhaps you are a vegetable in spite of yourself, but each one of your students is your seed. Try to be a real teacher; teach your students common sense and reflection, independence and justice. That way, when you are old, you will be able to tell your children that once, when you were in this profession, your heart felt pride, and was not full of shame.
Recently, Fujian released ten regulations on higher education. Of these, people focused mostly on the second regulation, which stipulated that: if in the course of teaching, educators spread erroneous statements in violation of the Party line, principles, policies, basic theory, or national laws and regulations, thereby adversely impacting students’ establishment of correct ideology and political beliefs, a “one-vote veto” will be carried out, and the offender will be dismissed.
What was comforting to me was that is that when I saw the regulations, I first thought they were implementing a policy of “executed with one shot,” but in fact it’s only “one vote veto” --much more advanced than in Mao Zedong’s time. As for what type of person can cast this one vote, I really don’t care. I only care that these principles, policies, and basic theories are really difficult to grasp. Those in power require ideological unity from all of us, but often they themselves are incapable of ideological unity. When I was young, I vaguely recall that my high school textbook talked about the separation of powers, and that my political textbook and politics teachers all said that separation of powers is a good thing. But recently, I keep seeing essays and statements from officials saying that the separation of powers is wrong. You know that I only have a high school diploma; my politics courses stopped at high school. I just feel very perplexed. I am worried what will happen to those teachers and textbook editors who spread those erroneous ideas. They are always reading the documents the leaders gave them; if they make a mistake, they will be disciplined by the authorities, simply because they were reading last night's documents- when their leaders woke up this morning, they changed their ideas.
I read somewhere pithy description of what this feels like …a man gets in a car, signals to turn right, but actually turns left, and then unexpectedly does a U-turn. If you are unlucky you can get killed by such a driver.
News reporters who search for the truth; history teachers who narrate history; authors and scholars who write a little truth; movie directors who film reality; some cases are treated as ideological errors; serious cases are treated as crime. But as soon this happens, people start speculating: was so-and-so taken for questioning by the police, or were they censored or arrested? In the end, even though often nothing really bad happened to the person- at most the "criminal evidence" has been deleted - people still feel worried about themselves. They feel that maybe that person was let off because he was too well known, so the government was hesitant to take action - whereas in my case would the government have those kind of concerns? What kind of deeply rooted image is this? How do things come to such a pass?
In any age, brains are washed just like vegetables, and there are always a few onions that just won’t come clean. Before, people wanted to cut the dirty heads off these onions to make them clean, but as times changed, people only expect those few dirty onions to mind their own business without spreading their dirty ideas. If they do try to tell other onions, they will immediately be pulped.
Many people believe that the document was sent out by the Fujian Education Bureau because there have recently been a few history teachers and university professors with pretty big mouths. Of course, I also saw today’s news. It is said that history teacher Yuan Tengfei is being disciplined, the same day Tianshangrenjian nightclub was being closed. But I believe it’s not due to these [political] reasons. When the Sensitive Department has not given orders, the government doesn’t respond so rapidly, nor do departments coordinate this well. It is just a coincidence, a routine regulation of the Department of Education. Every sector has regulations like this, it’s just expressed differently. It’s like all lotteries have the same rules, but it's up to the lottery organizer to decide how to explain them. But I don’t want to probe into who or what has the power to pass judgment on whether another person’s thoughts are correct or incorrect. This type of topic is meaningless, because it is obvious who has this power. Of course, powerful people have the power. Anything that benefits their interests and power is, of course, correct; anything that doesn’t benefits their interests or power is, of course, wrong. As long as you master this rule, you don’t have to worry about what is a right or wrong judgment.
To the majority of history, language, and political science teachers: what sort of future role do you see yourself playing in the teaching of history, language, and politics? How do you think you will be appraised? Perhaps you are a vegetable in spite of yourself, but each one of your students is your seed. Try to be a real teacher; teach your students common sense and reflection, independence and justice. That way, when you are old, you will be able to tell your children that once, when you were in this profession, your heart felt pride, and was not full of shame.
2010年5月15日 星期六
Censorship successful during Expo week kindergarten massacre
Western media like the BBC and the San Francisco Chronicle are still repeating official versions of the Taizhou kindergarten massacre which say that none of the 31 children attacked actually died. This is despite reports circulating on the Internet that actually a number of children did die. There is video footage of parents demonstrating and shouting the slogans: " we want the truth, we want our children" after they were not allowed into the hospital which was close to them as part of a news blackout.
This shows the success of the official suppression of bad news which coincided with the Shanghai Expo.
This shows the success of the official suppression of bad news which coincided with the Shanghai Expo.
History Repeats Itself
The popular online history teacher Yuan Tengfei (袁腾飞） has been sanctioned according to official media. His popular online videos have been deleted and he has been forbidden from continuing his online history teaching.
Yuan has compared Mau's mausoleum with the yasakuni shrine, and said that there should be a monument in Tiananmen Square to the victims of the Chinese regime from 1949 to 1978. He as compared China's spending on nuclear weapons development during the 1960s famine which killed over 30 million people with the present regime in North Korea. (According an estimate in Jung Chang's biography of Mao, had that money being spent on food instead, it could have prevented all those famine deaths.)
Yuan was initially promoted by Party media who liked his popularisation of history study. The timing of this censorship seems to be connected to his plans to publish a book which has attracted attention from his critics who have publicised his dissident views.
The episode echoes the treatment of history professor Yuan Weishi (袁伟时）who questioned the official version of the Boxer Rebellion in an article which led to the closing of Freezing Point magazine in 2005。
Yuan's lectures are still available on youtube
Yuan has compared Mau's mausoleum with the yasakuni shrine, and said that there should be a monument in Tiananmen Square to the victims of the Chinese regime from 1949 to 1978. He as compared China's spending on nuclear weapons development during the 1960s famine which killed over 30 million people with the present regime in North Korea. (According an estimate in Jung Chang's biography of Mao, had that money being spent on food instead, it could have prevented all those famine deaths.)
Yuan was initially promoted by Party media who liked his popularisation of history study. The timing of this censorship seems to be connected to his plans to publish a book which has attracted attention from his critics who have publicised his dissident views.
The episode echoes the treatment of history professor Yuan Weishi (袁伟时）who questioned the official version of the Boxer Rebellion in an article which led to the closing of Freezing Point magazine in 2005。
Yuan's lectures are still available on youtube
2010年5月9日 星期日
Kenengba and 1984BBC blogs blocked
Two mainland China blogs have been blocked again; Kenengba and 1984BBC. In the case of Kenengba, this may be because Kenengba recently published a survey of Great Fire Wall jumpers, their attitude to censorship and motives for jumping the GFW. Kenengba blogger Joseph Ng who conducted the survey found out that 80 percent of wall jumpers do so merely to access google.
Propaganda instructions to media leaked to RJF
Last week, che International Federation of Journalists - www.ifj.org - released copies of leaked instructions from China's Communist Party Central Propaganda Department. These include instructions to the media to restrict coverage of the recent spate of school and kindergarten mass murders, the real estate bubble, the visit of North Korea leader Kim, political trends in Taiwan and certain aspects of the Shanghai Expo. However, according to RFA's Zhang Weiguo, these topics are all hot on the Internet, so the Central Propaganda Department's attempt to restrict coverage may be weakening.
Abolition of online anonymity
Last week Wang Chen, director of the Information Department revealed that they have been working to abolish anonymous comments on the websites for the past year and claims success, and that such efforts will continue. Wang says this is in order to stop harmful information from China's enemies entering China.
RFA commentators Shi Dong and Zhang Weiguo made the following comments:
SD. This is counter-productive; if everyone has to reveal their real name before commenting online, netizens will do so; they cannot put everyone in prison.
ZWG. This is a good example of " Chinese characteristics". The Internet in China is becoming a Local Area Network, which defeats the original purpose of the Internet.
From rfa
RFA commentators Shi Dong and Zhang Weiguo made the following comments:
SD. This is counter-productive; if everyone has to reveal their real name before commenting online, netizens will do so; they cannot put everyone in prison.
ZWG. This is a good example of " Chinese characteristics". The Internet in China is becoming a Local Area Network, which defeats the original purpose of the Internet.
From rfa
2010年5月1日 星期六
Petitioners abused with psychiatry, earthquake victims imprisoned: a week in China 23-30 April 2010
This is an abbreviated translation of Radio Free Asia's April 23-30 2010 A Week in China program. Hosted by Ma Ping (MP) with Shi Dong (SD) and Zhang Weiguo (ZWG)
MP On Tuesday April 27 2010, at the General Assembly for Commending National Model and Advanced Workers in Beiing, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that front-line workers pay should be continuously increased, harmonious labor relations should be developed, coordination mechanisms of labor relations should be established and improved and labor protection mechanisms for the broad working masses to achieve decency at work should be improved.
Guangzhou City responded by deciding to raise the minimum wage of workers outside the state sector from a monthly minimum wage of 860 yuan to 1,100 yuan. Guangzhou Daily said the new standards will come into effect from May 1 Labour Day.
SD Hu Jintao's remarks sounds like they come straight out of the Cultural Revolution era, the only real thing he said was that wages should be increased, this "should" is so vague, it's unlikely to be put into effect. His "sincere regards" for long suffering workers is just an annual show for Labour Day. The rest of the year, workers are facing problems like layoffs, demolitions of their homes, health insurance; with all this on their minds, his remarks were very superficial.
MP China still says that it is a Socialist Country and that the working class is the " leading class", but we know that hard-earned wages are a social problem in enterprises and state industries.
ZWG We all know that China is a fake socialist country. Firstly they expropriated private property in the name of the working class, but then since the opening-up reforms, they have again plundered the accumulated surplus value of the common people, especially the urban residents, in the name of something else.
The key issue is: how is the value of Chinese labour determined? Is it decided by the market or by the government? Now they give the workers back a little bit at Labour Day, as if they are giving them a gift. The point here is that the value of labour is entirely determined by the Communist Party.
MP Between November and April, the party and administration leaders have been replaced in eight provinces and municipalities. Fujian, Henan, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Hunan replaced the provincial (regional) Party secretary. Most interesting is that the departure of Xinjiang's Party secretary was greeted with cheers. (After news spread, people set off firecrackers to celebrate Urumqi - rfa site)
SD Wang Lequan ran Xinjiang for 15 years which is a long time for a provincial Party secretary. He did a good job for the Communist Party of repressing Xinjiang, but he was very unpopular, not just with the Uighurs but even with many Han Chinese, so he had to be replaced. But another for removing him may be that Hu Jintao wants to replace Wang with his own man, so that Hu can carry on influencing politics after he retires.
ZWG Firstly the Communist party is incapable of solving ethnic conflict. Secondly the political system has really lost its way. Everybody was calling for Wang to resign but he wouldn't, now he has but he has kept all political benefits; the same time they've tied together summoning local officials, to make him comfortable; this system is worse than the one in the feudal period.
MP there has been a series of attacks on schoolchildren recently. In a primary school in Leizhou Zhanjiang, a man chopped 18 students and a teacher. In Taixing, Jiangsu, a man chopped 28 children at a kindergarten.
SD whenever there's a disaster in China, it's the children who suffer first. When they are earthquakes, it's schools which fall down first. When the milk was poisoned, is the children who got ill. Now there's this problem of security at schools; I think it should be improved. Maybe they can't afford security, and the local government doesn't seem to care much.
MP This week the man who killed eight kindergarten children in Fujian was executed.
ZWG I think Lu Xun once said that strong resist the strong and the weak take revenge on the weak. Government offices and buildings are all well protected by security and military police, while schools are wide open to this kind of attack.
China's first NPC Standing Committee has considered the revised draft Law on Guarding State Secrets. Once the revised draft requirements appear in the flow of information involving state secrets, the content must be immediately terminated. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that China is to strengthen the control of the telecommunications industry and Internet management, and customers require these companies report related to state secrets, commercial secrets may harm national security. Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities often arrested on charges of leaking state secrets to suppress political dissent. In China, the scope of the definition of state secrets, the breadth and uncertain, and even maps, navigation information and economic data may be a state secret.
This is a really outdated law, and against the trend. China has a lot of secrets. The Chinese government uses this to repress freedom of speech and the Internet. China is already the worst country for this; now they increasing this repression in the business world by making Internet service providers provide information to the public Security Bureau. China is just like a police state. And the Chinese government never clearly defines secrets, which gives them a free hand to repress as they wish. So it's a very bad law.
MP there is a clause in the law which requires Internet service providers and online service providers to delete information in accordance with the requirements of government departments.
ZWG This shows that Google was right to leave China. It would be a bad day for them if they had to co-operate with the government in this disgraceful business. In the past the Communist party used to " revealing secrets crime" to attack dissidents. With this revised law, they are now targeting companies. We can see from this that China's political trends and legal controls are not improving with the rising strength of the nation, but on the contrary, China is using its strength and science and technology to build a new Great Wall to cut China off from the world and take China down the wrong road.
MP Nearly two years after the Sichuan earthquake, ten parents of children who were killed in Mianzhu went to Beijing to petition, to publicise the jerry-built schools which let children die and called for someone to take responsibility. For parents were arrested by local authorities for " illegal petitioning" and taken back, where they face criminal detention. More than 100 parents from that school are under police surveillance, unable to escape.
SD in a normal society, like the United States for example, whenever there is a large-scale disaster like this whether or not it is natural, or human made, the government always sets up a committee to deal with these problems in an appropriate way. Very sample after the 911 incidents the American government had a big foundation to help the victims. In China whenever there is a disaster, and tens of thousands of people lose their lives, the leaders come and make speeches, shed a few tears, and after the media interviews are over, that's end of it. When these parents go to Beijing they are put under police surveillance and control, which shows how unjust Chinese society is.
ZWG this reminds me of two images from just after the earthquake which made a deep impression on me. The first was when the national leaders made very clear promises to the earthquake victims that the jerry built school issue would be thoroughly and rapidly investigated and dealt with and a verdict given, and the other is the local government officials going down on their knees in the road to beg local people not to petition the central government, to give them time, saying they would thoroughly investigate the jerry-building. Now after all this time the parents have become the target of repression, which is completely unjst. This kind of politics is a disaster for humanity.
MP Luohe City, Henan Province, Zheng Yi villager Xulin Dong has returned home from a mental hospital. Dong was arrested in Beijing and imprisoned in the Zhumadian by the local authorities after he helped a disabled villager to petition the higher level authorities. According to the Chinese media, Xulin Dong was detained for 6 years, during which he was tied up 50 times, was given electric shocks 55 times, twiced twice to escape and to commit suicide several times. Interviwed by Reuters on Tuesday, Xulin Dong said he will not allow this matter to such a past, he will to appeal to the higher courts for justice.
SD this is not surprising. The Communist Party says that they are always glorious and correct, so therefore anybody who doesn't agree with them must be mentally ill, so they lock them up in a mental hospital just like the Soviet Union used to do. This kind of thing happens all over China, we have discussed this kind of news story many times.
ZWG At least he's still alive, which means he is very lucky. In China's dark legal system the government is more and more fascistic; it has even made mental hospitals into detention centers.
The abuse of psychiatric hospitals is a serious problem for Chinese government and Chinese society.
MP On Tuesday April 27 2010, at the General Assembly for Commending National Model and Advanced Workers in Beiing, Chinese President Hu Jintao said that front-line workers pay should be continuously increased, harmonious labor relations should be developed, coordination mechanisms of labor relations should be established and improved and labor protection mechanisms for the broad working masses to achieve decency at work should be improved.
Guangzhou City responded by deciding to raise the minimum wage of workers outside the state sector from a monthly minimum wage of 860 yuan to 1,100 yuan. Guangzhou Daily said the new standards will come into effect from May 1 Labour Day.
SD Hu Jintao's remarks sounds like they come straight out of the Cultural Revolution era, the only real thing he said was that wages should be increased, this "should" is so vague, it's unlikely to be put into effect. His "sincere regards" for long suffering workers is just an annual show for Labour Day. The rest of the year, workers are facing problems like layoffs, demolitions of their homes, health insurance; with all this on their minds, his remarks were very superficial.
MP China still says that it is a Socialist Country and that the working class is the " leading class", but we know that hard-earned wages are a social problem in enterprises and state industries.
ZWG We all know that China is a fake socialist country. Firstly they expropriated private property in the name of the working class, but then since the opening-up reforms, they have again plundered the accumulated surplus value of the common people, especially the urban residents, in the name of something else.
The key issue is: how is the value of Chinese labour determined? Is it decided by the market or by the government? Now they give the workers back a little bit at Labour Day, as if they are giving them a gift. The point here is that the value of labour is entirely determined by the Communist Party.
MP Between November and April, the party and administration leaders have been replaced in eight provinces and municipalities. Fujian, Henan, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Hunan replaced the provincial (regional) Party secretary. Most interesting is that the departure of Xinjiang's Party secretary was greeted with cheers. (After news spread, people set off firecrackers to celebrate Urumqi - rfa site)
SD Wang Lequan ran Xinjiang for 15 years which is a long time for a provincial Party secretary. He did a good job for the Communist Party of repressing Xinjiang, but he was very unpopular, not just with the Uighurs but even with many Han Chinese, so he had to be replaced. But another for removing him may be that Hu Jintao wants to replace Wang with his own man, so that Hu can carry on influencing politics after he retires.
ZWG Firstly the Communist party is incapable of solving ethnic conflict. Secondly the political system has really lost its way. Everybody was calling for Wang to resign but he wouldn't, now he has but he has kept all political benefits; the same time they've tied together summoning local officials, to make him comfortable; this system is worse than the one in the feudal period.
MP there has been a series of attacks on schoolchildren recently. In a primary school in Leizhou Zhanjiang, a man chopped 18 students and a teacher. In Taixing, Jiangsu, a man chopped 28 children at a kindergarten.
SD whenever there's a disaster in China, it's the children who suffer first. When they are earthquakes, it's schools which fall down first. When the milk was poisoned, is the children who got ill. Now there's this problem of security at schools; I think it should be improved. Maybe they can't afford security, and the local government doesn't seem to care much.
MP This week the man who killed eight kindergarten children in Fujian was executed.
ZWG I think Lu Xun once said that strong resist the strong and the weak take revenge on the weak. Government offices and buildings are all well protected by security and military police, while schools are wide open to this kind of attack.
China's first NPC Standing Committee has considered the revised draft Law on Guarding State Secrets. Once the revised draft requirements appear in the flow of information involving state secrets, the content must be immediately terminated. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that China is to strengthen the control of the telecommunications industry and Internet management, and customers require these companies report related to state secrets, commercial secrets may harm national security. Associated Press reported that Chinese authorities often arrested on charges of leaking state secrets to suppress political dissent. In China, the scope of the definition of state secrets, the breadth and uncertain, and even maps, navigation information and economic data may be a state secret.
This is a really outdated law, and against the trend. China has a lot of secrets. The Chinese government uses this to repress freedom of speech and the Internet. China is already the worst country for this; now they increasing this repression in the business world by making Internet service providers provide information to the public Security Bureau. China is just like a police state. And the Chinese government never clearly defines secrets, which gives them a free hand to repress as they wish. So it's a very bad law.
MP there is a clause in the law which requires Internet service providers and online service providers to delete information in accordance with the requirements of government departments.
ZWG This shows that Google was right to leave China. It would be a bad day for them if they had to co-operate with the government in this disgraceful business. In the past the Communist party used to " revealing secrets crime" to attack dissidents. With this revised law, they are now targeting companies. We can see from this that China's political trends and legal controls are not improving with the rising strength of the nation, but on the contrary, China is using its strength and science and technology to build a new Great Wall to cut China off from the world and take China down the wrong road.
MP Nearly two years after the Sichuan earthquake, ten parents of children who were killed in Mianzhu went to Beijing to petition, to publicise the jerry-built schools which let children die and called for someone to take responsibility. For parents were arrested by local authorities for " illegal petitioning" and taken back, where they face criminal detention. More than 100 parents from that school are under police surveillance, unable to escape.
SD in a normal society, like the United States for example, whenever there is a large-scale disaster like this whether or not it is natural, or human made, the government always sets up a committee to deal with these problems in an appropriate way. Very sample after the 911 incidents the American government had a big foundation to help the victims. In China whenever there is a disaster, and tens of thousands of people lose their lives, the leaders come and make speeches, shed a few tears, and after the media interviews are over, that's end of it. When these parents go to Beijing they are put under police surveillance and control, which shows how unjust Chinese society is.
ZWG this reminds me of two images from just after the earthquake which made a deep impression on me. The first was when the national leaders made very clear promises to the earthquake victims that the jerry built school issue would be thoroughly and rapidly investigated and dealt with and a verdict given, and the other is the local government officials going down on their knees in the road to beg local people not to petition the central government, to give them time, saying they would thoroughly investigate the jerry-building. Now after all this time the parents have become the target of repression, which is completely unjst. This kind of politics is a disaster for humanity.
MP Luohe City, Henan Province, Zheng Yi villager Xulin Dong has returned home from a mental hospital. Dong was arrested in Beijing and imprisoned in the Zhumadian by the local authorities after he helped a disabled villager to petition the higher level authorities. According to the Chinese media, Xulin Dong was detained for 6 years, during which he was tied up 50 times, was given electric shocks 55 times, twiced twice to escape and to commit suicide several times. Interviwed by Reuters on Tuesday, Xulin Dong said he will not allow this matter to such a past, he will to appeal to the higher courts for justice.
SD this is not surprising. The Communist Party says that they are always glorious and correct, so therefore anybody who doesn't agree with them must be mentally ill, so they lock them up in a mental hospital just like the Soviet Union used to do. This kind of thing happens all over China, we have discussed this kind of news story many times.
ZWG At least he's still alive, which means he is very lucky. In China's dark legal system the government is more and more fascistic; it has even made mental hospitals into detention centers.
The abuse of psychiatric hospitals is a serious problem for Chinese government and Chinese society.
New Law to increase internet censorship
China has passed a new revised Secrets Law to tighten internet censorship. Now internet service providers and online services are legally responsible for reporting politically sensitive material and deleting it. Secret means any information which makes people angry with the Communist Party dictatorship.
How much the law will be enforced is unknown, as enforcement of existing law is patchy and haphazard. The Communist Party and its wealthy allies are above the law and the media has to make money. The legal system in China is a tool of the police; the highest judge has a lower Party rank than the head of the Public Security Bureau. Even the media has greater political power than the law; verdicts are often changed after media campaigns.
The CCP responds to this self-created lawlessness by passing more laws, simply creating more confusion in the process.
How much the law will be enforced is unknown, as enforcement of existing law is patchy and haphazard. The Communist Party and its wealthy allies are above the law and the media has to make money. The legal system in China is a tool of the police; the highest judge has a lower Party rank than the head of the Public Security Bureau. Even the media has greater political power than the law; verdicts are often changed after media campaigns.
The CCP responds to this self-created lawlessness by passing more laws, simply creating more confusion in the process.
2010年4月27日 星期二
Learn Chinese by studying censorship
Since 2003, I have been listening to Radio Free Asia's "A week in China", which features news censored in China. I have learned a lot about China, and improved my aural comprehension. Here are some recent expressions
2010年4月23日 星期五
Tiger Trends
Hong Kong Dongxiang (Trends) magazine, which is censored on the mainland, regularly critices the Chinese Communist Party. Many of the commentaries, which are written in Chinese by Chinese commentators, are trenchant and insightful. The strength of criticism usually outstrips anything found in the human rights community, which tries to be objective, and could be said to self-censor itself to avoid accusations of bias and chauvinism. Here is a commentary on the Chinese Year of the Tiger, which began in January. Unfortunately, there is no English language version, so I will attempt to translate some articles. Here is one from earlier this year, which claims that China's internal authoritarianism may result in external aggression.
Tiger Year Tiger Talk
Everywhere you go in China you can see attractive decorative displays of toy tigers, and apart from wishing everybody a happy year of the Tiger, we would also like to say we hope that in the New Year, China will become more amiable and more worthy of respect and not more detestable, terrifying and repulsive.
Decorative tigers are cute and lovely, but a nation which is seen as a tiger is terrifying. Both for China and for the world, the stronger such a country becomes, the greater the disaster. The fascist regimes of the 20th century are an example of this: not only did they bring disaster to the world, but in the end they also destroyed themselves.
After 30 years of reform and opening up, China is greatly changed, the economy has taken off and and quality of life is clearly improved and consequently the country has taken an important role on the international stage. This has been the dream of many Chinese for over a hundred years.
But advanced Chinese people want more than this. The revolutionary pioneers represented by Sun Yatsen called for the Three People's Principles and even the Chinese Communist Party swears by and strives to realise this political principle. But has it been achieved to them date? No, it has not. Today, not only is democratic freedom an empty phrase, even the CCP's much loved and repeated mantra of "Rule by Law" actually just means that the Communist party uses the Law to rule the people, while the powerholders themselves are above the law.
Despite signing international covenant on human rights, these have not been put into practice, and Chinese leaders have even made statements rejecting the universal values of democracy and freedom, rejected the tripartite division of powers and said that China is different. How can the Chinese leaders be so ignorant? It's shocking.
China is on the road to modernisation, and is truly rising in the global village. But modernising and rising are all very well. If you don't have freedom and democracy you will not be allowed into the court room of human civilisation. No matter how many shiny tall buildings, fast rail ways, gleaming airports, advanced missile systems, what matters most is the state of your people. Are your people free, do they have dignity? can they think freely, express themselves freely, make free choices? Are people equal? the People's Republic has been in existence for 60 years, but the power of the Communist party was seized with violence from the hands of the Nationalist party. The Chinese people never authorised the Communist party to exercise power. In order to maintain the party dictatorship, this party keeps tight control of the military, and still uses the slogan "the Party's absolute leadership of the military". From the point of view of the Chinese people, it's the private army of the Communist party, which" takes orders from the party" - this was one of the slogans formed by people's bodies during the 60th anniversary celebrations in Tiananmen Square. This does not smack of modernity.
Ever since the establishment of the People's Republic, the Commons party has monopolised society's resources, concentrated all power in its own hands, and its role has spread into every corner of society, so that the People's Republic has become a pyramid shaped machine. Because economic political and military power are highly concentrated in the party's hands and the party has never been authorised by the people and is not supervised by the people, and since the Party's power is concentrated in the hands of its leaders and the leadership is chosen by its predecessors, this kind of system inevitably creates a hotbed of dictatorship. Anybody who gets to the top of this pyramid can exercise absolute power; that's why Mao Zedong was able to launch the Cultural Revolution and why Deng Xiaoping was able to terminate political reform in the 1990s with his " four principles" speech
As China rises, the Chinese Communist Party is starting to resemble a tiger. As internal repression increases, it is throwing its weight around internationally. Diplomacy Is the extension of the internal affairs, and war is the extension of politics, as the sayings go.
It's inevitable that as the nation's power increases, it will put pressure on other countries. If it cannot achieve its ends peacefully war is inevitable. The Chinese Communist Party is inflaming nationalist fanaticism and only fascist regimes do this.
Nationalistic fanaticism reached a peak in 2008, but in order to raise the temperature this high, the country invested a huge amount and which was really excessive. Last year, with the military parades celebrating 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the Chinese Communist party showed its true face. All that advanced new military hardware was there only to show the world China's military prestige. What kind of message were they sending?
It was the face of the tiger!
We hope that our interpretation is wrong, and that our concerns are unnecessary!
Happy Year of the Tiger!
Dong Xiang editor Zhang Weiguo can also be heard weekly on Radio Free Asia's Zhongguoyizhou ( a week in China )
Tiger Year Tiger Talk
Everywhere you go in China you can see attractive decorative displays of toy tigers, and apart from wishing everybody a happy year of the Tiger, we would also like to say we hope that in the New Year, China will become more amiable and more worthy of respect and not more detestable, terrifying and repulsive.
Decorative tigers are cute and lovely, but a nation which is seen as a tiger is terrifying. Both for China and for the world, the stronger such a country becomes, the greater the disaster. The fascist regimes of the 20th century are an example of this: not only did they bring disaster to the world, but in the end they also destroyed themselves.
After 30 years of reform and opening up, China is greatly changed, the economy has taken off and and quality of life is clearly improved and consequently the country has taken an important role on the international stage. This has been the dream of many Chinese for over a hundred years.
But advanced Chinese people want more than this. The revolutionary pioneers represented by Sun Yatsen called for the Three People's Principles and even the Chinese Communist Party swears by and strives to realise this political principle. But has it been achieved to them date? No, it has not. Today, not only is democratic freedom an empty phrase, even the CCP's much loved and repeated mantra of "Rule by Law" actually just means that the Communist party uses the Law to rule the people, while the powerholders themselves are above the law.
Despite signing international covenant on human rights, these have not been put into practice, and Chinese leaders have even made statements rejecting the universal values of democracy and freedom, rejected the tripartite division of powers and said that China is different. How can the Chinese leaders be so ignorant? It's shocking.
China is on the road to modernisation, and is truly rising in the global village. But modernising and rising are all very well. If you don't have freedom and democracy you will not be allowed into the court room of human civilisation. No matter how many shiny tall buildings, fast rail ways, gleaming airports, advanced missile systems, what matters most is the state of your people. Are your people free, do they have dignity? can they think freely, express themselves freely, make free choices? Are people equal? the People's Republic has been in existence for 60 years, but the power of the Communist party was seized with violence from the hands of the Nationalist party. The Chinese people never authorised the Communist party to exercise power. In order to maintain the party dictatorship, this party keeps tight control of the military, and still uses the slogan "the Party's absolute leadership of the military". From the point of view of the Chinese people, it's the private army of the Communist party, which" takes orders from the party" - this was one of the slogans formed by people's bodies during the 60th anniversary celebrations in Tiananmen Square. This does not smack of modernity.
Ever since the establishment of the People's Republic, the Commons party has monopolised society's resources, concentrated all power in its own hands, and its role has spread into every corner of society, so that the People's Republic has become a pyramid shaped machine. Because economic political and military power are highly concentrated in the party's hands and the party has never been authorised by the people and is not supervised by the people, and since the Party's power is concentrated in the hands of its leaders and the leadership is chosen by its predecessors, this kind of system inevitably creates a hotbed of dictatorship. Anybody who gets to the top of this pyramid can exercise absolute power; that's why Mao Zedong was able to launch the Cultural Revolution and why Deng Xiaoping was able to terminate political reform in the 1990s with his " four principles" speech
As China rises, the Chinese Communist Party is starting to resemble a tiger. As internal repression increases, it is throwing its weight around internationally. Diplomacy Is the extension of the internal affairs, and war is the extension of politics, as the sayings go.
It's inevitable that as the nation's power increases, it will put pressure on other countries. If it cannot achieve its ends peacefully war is inevitable. The Chinese Communist Party is inflaming nationalist fanaticism and only fascist regimes do this.
Nationalistic fanaticism reached a peak in 2008, but in order to raise the temperature this high, the country invested a huge amount and which was really excessive. Last year, with the military parades celebrating 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic, the Chinese Communist party showed its true face. All that advanced new military hardware was there only to show the world China's military prestige. What kind of message were they sending?
It was the face of the tiger!
We hope that our interpretation is wrong, and that our concerns are unnecessary!
Happy Year of the Tiger!
Dong Xiang editor Zhang Weiguo can also be heard weekly on Radio Free Asia's Zhongguoyizhou ( a week in China )
Is China teaching the world to censor?
In recent years, economic and political ties have blossomed between Brazil and China. China has replaced the US as Brazil's largest trading partner. Both countries have leaders who see the US as hegemon to be contained and are suspicious or US foreign policy intentions. According to a recent WSJ article citing Human Rights Watch, in international forums, China and Brazil have both undermined attempts to sanctions human rights abusers, arguing that this infringes national sovereignty. President Lula of Brazil is friendly with Fidel Castro, and has defended the Cuban leader's imprisonment of dissidents.
Now a new report from Google shows that Brazil leads the world in government censorship demands, and yesterday China's Communist Party propaganda newspaper the China Daily featured this in another barely disguised attack on Google, which it says has broken it's promise to censor search results in China.
When censuring Google's Orkut, the Brazilian courts have also noted the example of Google's censorship in China, saying in effect: "Google will censor for China, why won't it censor for us?" .
Nobody is saying that the media takes its orders from the government in Brazil as it does in China. But China's influence on Brazil, indeed on the world, is worrying.
Now a new report from Google shows that Brazil leads the world in government censorship demands, and yesterday China's Communist Party propaganda newspaper the China Daily featured this in another barely disguised attack on Google, which it says has broken it's promise to censor search results in China.
When censuring Google's Orkut, the Brazilian courts have also noted the example of Google's censorship in China, saying in effect: "Google will censor for China, why won't it censor for us?" .
Nobody is saying that the media takes its orders from the government in Brazil as it does in China. But China's influence on Brazil, indeed on the world, is worrying.
2010年4月21日 星期三
Shanghai Expo, another excuse for censorship
Once again, another big showcase event is turning out to be an excuse to censor dissidents. This reminds one of the big crack down during the Olympics, when dissidents were taken away by police, and old ladies were arrested for applying for a permit to demonstrate in a park designated for demonstrations
According to today's Apple Newspaper, Shanghai lawyer Feng Zhenghu had been planning an "exhibition" of 12 miscarriages of justice to coincide with the Expo. Police questioned him for four hours yesterday, and confiscated four of his computers, as well as his scanner and other equipment. They even took away the modem supplied by his ISP. Their reason: he has "Slandered people".
Police told Feng to learn from the example of Gao Zhisheng, who has finally given up his legal advocacy after repeated arrests, detention, death threats and torture, which included toothpicks stuck through his testicles.
What an intelligent use of public funds. I am sure it will help to promote the reputation of Shanghai and ensure the success of the Shanghai Expo.
Last year, Feng was denied entry to China after visiting Japan, and forced to spend weeks in Narita Airport.
According to today's Apple Newspaper, Shanghai lawyer Feng Zhenghu had been planning an "exhibition" of 12 miscarriages of justice to coincide with the Expo. Police questioned him for four hours yesterday, and confiscated four of his computers, as well as his scanner and other equipment. They even took away the modem supplied by his ISP. Their reason: he has "Slandered people".
Police told Feng to learn from the example of Gao Zhisheng, who has finally given up his legal advocacy after repeated arrests, detention, death threats and torture, which included toothpicks stuck through his testicles.
What an intelligent use of public funds. I am sure it will help to promote the reputation of Shanghai and ensure the success of the Shanghai Expo.
Last year, Feng was denied entry to China after visiting Japan, and forced to spend weeks in Narita Airport.
2010年4月20日 星期二
Animated gifs: a way around Censorship
If you stare at this long enough, a message will be revealed, or should, with some a sensitive statement about June 4th and Tiananmen.
Could this be an anti-censorship strategy?
Inside the great fire wall? view it here
From the mouths of babes
According to a post on yahoo.cn, school children whose colleagues were murdered by a serial killer said: "why do you have to slaughter children, why not kill a few corrupt officials instead".
This reminds me the online support for Yang Jia, who become a popular hero after murdering six policeman in a knife attack at a Shanghai police station.
This reminds me the online support for Yang Jia, who become a popular hero after murdering six policeman in a knife attack at a Shanghai police station.
The best form of censorship is to kill
The best form of censorship is death. What more effective than to sentence to death a person who knows too much about corruption, government mafia etc.
Maybe this is what really happened to Wen Qiang, the former head of the judiciary of Chongqing. The 13 million yuan he is said to have taken is not much these days. Many have received lesser sentences for smaller amounts. And apparently the money was invested in a government owned bank.
China doesn't really have a legal system it seems. Important cases are decided for political reasons, in this case to shut the mouth of someone who knew too much
Maybe this is what really happened to Wen Qiang, the former head of the judiciary of Chongqing. The 13 million yuan he is said to have taken is not much these days. Many have received lesser sentences for smaller amounts. And apparently the money was invested in a government owned bank.
China doesn't really have a legal system it seems. Important cases are decided for political reasons, in this case to shut the mouth of someone who knew too much
2010年4月19日 星期一
2010年4月18日 星期日
China increases internet surveillance
The New York Times reports on the opening of yet another government bureau to police the internet.
Here is the Hong Kong Apple Daily Chinese report
內地進一步監控互聯網。國務院新聞辦公室證實近日設立「互聯網新聞協調局」（第九局），專門監控微博、論壇、影片分享網站等。新部門已派員出席各種會議及培訓班。互聯網新聞從業員稱，增設第九局後，監管互聯網的人手會相應增加，監管力度會比以前更嚴格。
國新辦的新安排已實施數星期，原國新辦網絡局（第五局）仍然分管內地網站及國際媒體宣傳，新設的互聯網新聞協調局（第九局）則會負責「網絡文化建設、管理、協調、督促等工作」，為互動論壇新聞把關。第九局局長，由原來第五局副局長彭波出任。
Here is the Hong Kong Apple Daily Chinese report
內地進一步監控互聯網。國務院新聞辦公室證實近日設立「互聯網新聞協調局」（第九局），專門監控微博、論壇、影片分享網站等。新部門已派員出席各種會議及培訓班。互聯網新聞從業員稱，增設第九局後，監管互聯網的人手會相應增加，監管力度會比以前更嚴格。
國新辦的新安排已實施數星期，原國新辦網絡局（第五局）仍然分管內地網站及國際媒體宣傳，新設的互聯網新聞協調局（第九局）則會負責「網絡文化建設、管理、協調、督促等工作」，為互動論壇新聞把關。第九局局長，由原來第五局副局長彭波出任。
2010年4月17日 星期六
Censored: Sports Sponsorship in China
This is an article which I wrote for Business Forum China in August 2009. Business Forum is published in China and sold abroad, so it comes under external propaganda guidance, which seems to be stricter than internal. Apparently the Shanghai Propaganda Bureau tends to come down hard on the magazine about once a year, around this time; maybe to do with the June 4th anniversary run-up?
Anyway, my article was not allowed to be published in any form.
Here it is: http://www.stephen-t.com/200_million_NBA_fans.doc
Nothing really subversive, just noting that the development of the market for sponsorship is limited by state control of the media.
Anyway, my article was not allowed to be published in any form.
Here it is: http://www.stephen-t.com/200_million_NBA_fans.doc
Nothing really subversive, just noting that the development of the market for sponsorship is limited by state control of the media.
Jumping the Great Fire Wall with Freegate
Last year my version of Freegate stopped working, now I think I know why. I was using a made-in-China anti virus software, and apparently all such software is designed to "protect" against agents such as Freegate. It constantly updates itself, so you have to keep on updating your verion of freegate, or it will block freegate. To solve this problem, you need to use foreign-made anti-virus software. Although apparently, that might leave you open to risk from Chinese viruses, which are not on the foreign databases yet. So you may need to sweep your computer with a Chinese made one from time to time, with Freegate turned off, to catch these.
2010年4月15日 星期四
What you can say in China
You can say a lot, like this list of problems for example:
中国的贪官之多，准为世界第一，虽然没有精确数据，想来亦无大错。- China is world champion corruption
中国的官吏数量，是世界第一。4000多万公务人员，放到世界上，是一个不少的国家。 China has more bureaucrats than any other country; 40000000
中国的行政成本，也是世界第一。最近几十年来，财政收入增长28倍，而行政费用从不到50亿扩张到近万亿，增长了上百倍。China's administration is the most expensive
中国的公款消费，铁定世界第一。国家信息中心的统计数据显示，2004年度，公款吃喝3700亿，公车消费3986亿，公款出境旅游2400亿，三项合计已逾万亿大关，占当年财政收入的40%。Official expenses consume 40% of government spending, or 398600000000 yuan per year
中国的事故数量、死亡数量，是世界第一。China has the most accidents and death from accidents
弄虚作假，搞“山寨版”，肯定也是世界第一。China is the world number one for fakery and piracy
What you can't do is say that all these problems are caused by the one party dictatorship.
I got this while I was reading about a new book called Zhongguo Meng,http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4fc406940100h0h4.html?tj=1 (China Dream), which is by a professor at a military school in China. The book includes some of the usual myths about China's peaceful rise, eg China has never invaded another country. This statement never fails to astonish me, especially from someone who should know better. I call it the victim myth
中国的贪官之多，准为世界第一，虽然没有精确数据，想来亦无大错。- China is world champion corruption
中国的官吏数量，是世界第一。4000多万公务人员，放到世界上，是一个不少的国家。 China has more bureaucrats than any other country; 40000000
中国的行政成本，也是世界第一。最近几十年来，财政收入增长28倍，而行政费用从不到50亿扩张到近万亿，增长了上百倍。China's administration is the most expensive
中国的公款消费，铁定世界第一。国家信息中心的统计数据显示，2004年度，公款吃喝3700亿，公车消费3986亿，公款出境旅游2400亿，三项合计已逾万亿大关，占当年财政收入的40%。Official expenses consume 40% of government spending, or 398600000000 yuan per year
中国的事故数量、死亡数量，是世界第一。China has the most accidents and death from accidents
弄虚作假，搞“山寨版”，肯定也是世界第一。China is the world number one for fakery and piracy
What you can't do is say that all these problems are caused by the one party dictatorship.
I got this while I was reading about a new book called Zhongguo Meng,http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_4fc406940100h0h4.html?tj=1 (China Dream), which is by a professor at a military school in China. The book includes some of the usual myths about China's peaceful rise, eg China has never invaded another country. This statement never fails to astonish me, especially from someone who should know better. I call it the victim myth
China-Brazil relations, amnesia or ingratitude?
Nothing is stranger and more remarkable in the world of international relations and alliances than the recent cosying up Brazil's new democracy in the post dictatorship era with the people's dictatorship of China. How can Brazil's leaders, who themselves were persecuted socialist dissidents in their youth, identify so closely with a party-state which has abandoned socialism while maintaining dictatorship with censorship, propaganda and repression? The answer lies in the shared opposition to US hegemony, more than infatuation with China's "model".
China's ruling CCP has a long history of "exploiting contradictions" between its foes and making alliances with the enemies of its enemies. For example, following the 1960 Sino-Soviet split, China fostered proxy wars to undermine the Soviet Union's influence in Angola, by funding the UNITA guerilla army, which was then fighting the Soviet backed government in Luanda. Similarly, China's reluctance to sanction Iran can be understood as support for a proxy who is pushing back against the US, and this support is only limited by China's realistic assessment of it's continued weakness in relation to the US led anti nuclear proliferation alliance.
Another example of this could be seen in China's relations with Europe in the last decade, which it tended to value more, and tended to improve, during conflicts with the US. Growing assertiveness on China's part is leading to a closer US-Europe relationship, as the two sides find themselves more frequently on the same side in disputes with China
Brazil's leaders also see value in alliances with countries which share their hostility to US foreign policy and its Monroe doctrine. This hostility springs from their experience in their youth of repressive dictatorship which was supported by was CIA, which was well documented at the time by Philip Agee and others. CIA support was crucial in undermining other democratically elected governments in Chile, Argentina and other places, where they were replaced by authoritarian dictatorships which ignored human rights far more than China does today. In Brazil, several hundred people were murdered in a few years. It was this failed policy which led Brazil's socialist leaders to their current cynicism towards of US human rights advocacy, and their friendly relationships with China, as well as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and others. The negative repercussions of earlier US policy in its "back yard" are still being felt in the South America.
China on the other hand is always quick to take advantage of antagonism towards the US, and it uses this effectively in its government propaganda. Propaganda has been a hallmark of Communist Party's "fight for hearts and minds" ever since the birth of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1920, and before that in the Bolshevik experience of information use, from which they learned this method. To this they added the traditional shrewdness of Chinese strategy, which is well known in the west through Sunzi's "Art of War" - disinformation has a long history in China, and religion has never exerted a moral deterrence against lying to the extent it has in Northern Europe since the protestant reformation. As early western travellers such as Lord Macartney noted, their is no shame in lying in China. The same could be said for the Catholic religion, where all is forgiven at confession.
When Hu Jintao visited Brazil in 2005, Brazil opened its market to China in the hope of political support for its bid to join the UN security council. The gesture, which cost Brazil thousands of jobs, was not reciprocated. Indeed, no advanced country has recognised China as a market economy, because this means giving up the right to take action against dumping in the WTO. And China is clearly not a fully market economy - the Communist Party-State has a monopoly of the main industries there. So why did Brazil make such a wasteful concession to China with no guarantee of return?
It could be that Brazil's leaders just do not understand China - they have not done their homework. Unlike Europe, North American and Japan, South America has no sinologists, no university courses in Chinese Studies, few Chinese language courses or exchange programs with Chinese universities. So when Itamarity needs advice on China policy, they have no home-grown expertise to turn to for advice.
But it could be that even with such advise on hand, Lula would still push for his grand alliance regardless of cost. He seems to share with the Chinese a love of making large wasteful displays. Witness his recent emotion on winning the Olympic Games, even though he must know this is equivalent of pouring gasoline on the endemic fire of Brazilian corruption, and even though Brazil desperately needs to increase spending on more important things, such as health and education.
Ultimately, it seems that Lula has no gratitude - gratitude for the forces of Democracy which brought him to power. He began his career in an era of military dictatorship, without free elections, and with press censorship, when dissidents and activists were routinely abducted, tortured and even killed by the Brazilian police. Without the democratic rule which was won in the 1980s, he would never have come to power. So why is he now allying his country with China, which leads the world in censorship, repression and authoritarian rule? Does he have no sympathy for the hundreds of people who are in jail in China because they tried to get compensation for their injured children, or because they organized a petition, or because they sent an email to a foreigner? Brazil's alliance with China undermines the forces of democracy which brought Lula power. So Lula must have a short memory, or no sense of gratitude.
It seems last year's visit to China was impressive more for Lula's claims than for real progress:
China's ruling CCP has a long history of "exploiting contradictions" between its foes and making alliances with the enemies of its enemies. For example, following the 1960 Sino-Soviet split, China fostered proxy wars to undermine the Soviet Union's influence in Angola, by funding the UNITA guerilla army, which was then fighting the Soviet backed government in Luanda. Similarly, China's reluctance to sanction Iran can be understood as support for a proxy who is pushing back against the US, and this support is only limited by China's realistic assessment of it's continued weakness in relation to the US led anti nuclear proliferation alliance.
Another example of this could be seen in China's relations with Europe in the last decade, which it tended to value more, and tended to improve, during conflicts with the US. Growing assertiveness on China's part is leading to a closer US-Europe relationship, as the two sides find themselves more frequently on the same side in disputes with China
Brazil's leaders also see value in alliances with countries which share their hostility to US foreign policy and its Monroe doctrine. This hostility springs from their experience in their youth of repressive dictatorship which was supported by was CIA, which was well documented at the time by Philip Agee and others. CIA support was crucial in undermining other democratically elected governments in Chile, Argentina and other places, where they were replaced by authoritarian dictatorships which ignored human rights far more than China does today. In Brazil, several hundred people were murdered in a few years. It was this failed policy which led Brazil's socialist leaders to their current cynicism towards of US human rights advocacy, and their friendly relationships with China, as well as Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez and others. The negative repercussions of earlier US policy in its "back yard" are still being felt in the South America.
China on the other hand is always quick to take advantage of antagonism towards the US, and it uses this effectively in its government propaganda. Propaganda has been a hallmark of Communist Party's "fight for hearts and minds" ever since the birth of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1920, and before that in the Bolshevik experience of information use, from which they learned this method. To this they added the traditional shrewdness of Chinese strategy, which is well known in the west through Sunzi's "Art of War" - disinformation has a long history in China, and religion has never exerted a moral deterrence against lying to the extent it has in Northern Europe since the protestant reformation. As early western travellers such as Lord Macartney noted, their is no shame in lying in China. The same could be said for the Catholic religion, where all is forgiven at confession.
When Hu Jintao visited Brazil in 2005, Brazil opened its market to China in the hope of political support for its bid to join the UN security council. The gesture, which cost Brazil thousands of jobs, was not reciprocated. Indeed, no advanced country has recognised China as a market economy, because this means giving up the right to take action against dumping in the WTO. And China is clearly not a fully market economy - the Communist Party-State has a monopoly of the main industries there. So why did Brazil make such a wasteful concession to China with no guarantee of return?
It could be that Brazil's leaders just do not understand China - they have not done their homework. Unlike Europe, North American and Japan, South America has no sinologists, no university courses in Chinese Studies, few Chinese language courses or exchange programs with Chinese universities. So when Itamarity needs advice on China policy, they have no home-grown expertise to turn to for advice.
But it could be that even with such advise on hand, Lula would still push for his grand alliance regardless of cost. He seems to share with the Chinese a love of making large wasteful displays. Witness his recent emotion on winning the Olympic Games, even though he must know this is equivalent of pouring gasoline on the endemic fire of Brazilian corruption, and even though Brazil desperately needs to increase spending on more important things, such as health and education.
Ultimately, it seems that Lula has no gratitude - gratitude for the forces of Democracy which brought him to power. He began his career in an era of military dictatorship, without free elections, and with press censorship, when dissidents and activists were routinely abducted, tortured and even killed by the Brazilian police. Without the democratic rule which was won in the 1980s, he would never have come to power. So why is he now allying his country with China, which leads the world in censorship, repression and authoritarian rule? Does he have no sympathy for the hundreds of people who are in jail in China because they tried to get compensation for their injured children, or because they organized a petition, or because they sent an email to a foreigner? Brazil's alliance with China undermines the forces of democracy which brought Lula power. So Lula must have a short memory, or no sense of gratitude.
It seems last year's visit to China was impressive more for Lula's claims than for real progress:
2010年4月7日 星期三
The Man Who did not Change China
Sometimes foreigners help the CCP with it's Censorship and propaganda. Today at the bookshop at Hong Kong Airport I leafed through a book called "How China's Leaders Think" by a guy I guy called Kuhn. Apparently he also wrote another book about Jiang Zemin which was a hit in China.
I used to see this book on sale all over China, "Jiang Zemin, the man who changed China", and I never bought it, because it looked like sycophantic propaganda to me.
For me, Jiang Zemin was the guy who missed the chance to change China, the guy who kept China the same, postponing political reform, allowing China's problems of corruption snd pollution, to rise and rise, while allowing China's health and medical systems to decay.
Zhao Ziyang's book "Prisoner of the State", is more interesting. It was secretly recorded while under house arrest because he did not support the repression of the democracy movement.
Zhao could have gone along with the repression like Jiang, but unlike Jiang, he didn't want to go down in history as a Premier who had supported the massacre of its own people. He said he "had a responsibility to history".
I think a more interesting book from Kuhn would be "Why the leaders of China don't think".
Kuhn says he is critical of China but I had a look at the section on corruption in his latest book: in it, he says that the leaders are very concerned about corruption. Of course there are, they are concerned to keep it going, as their sons and daughters are all making a lot of money out of it.
I used to see this book on sale all over China, "Jiang Zemin, the man who changed China", and I never bought it, because it looked like sycophantic propaganda to me.
For me, Jiang Zemin was the guy who missed the chance to change China, the guy who kept China the same, postponing political reform, allowing China's problems of corruption snd pollution, to rise and rise, while allowing China's health and medical systems to decay.
Zhao Ziyang's book "Prisoner of the State", is more interesting. It was secretly recorded while under house arrest because he did not support the repression of the democracy movement.
Zhao could have gone along with the repression like Jiang, but unlike Jiang, he didn't want to go down in history as a Premier who had supported the massacre of its own people. He said he "had a responsibility to history".
I think a more interesting book from Kuhn would be "Why the leaders of China don't think".
Kuhn says he is critical of China but I had a look at the section on corruption in his latest book: in it, he says that the leaders are very concerned about corruption. Of course there are, they are concerned to keep it going, as their sons and daughters are all making a lot of money out of it.
2010年4月5日 星期一
Global Online Freedom Act of 2007
This law
To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes.
never became Law
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-275
Here is some stuff I have been looking at today
This is the site of veteran libertarian campaigner Long Hair http://www.longhair.hk/
Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China, a paper by Rebecca MacKinnon, available at
Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China:
http://books.google.com/books?id=I-95XzS7l8QC&lpg=PP1&dq=china%20internet&pg=PT4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://bbs1.people.com.cn/ The forum of the People's Daily
China's Communist Party: atrophy and adaptation By David L. Shambaugh, argues that the Propaganda system is both atrophying and adapting to the pressures of globalization, marketization, pleuralization and new technology: http://books.google.com/books?id=IOW6msgYWzwC&lpg=PR10&ots=PruY1JFwtB&dq=censorship%20shambaugh&lr=&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
My blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/5tm74, when will they censor it?
http://www.rsf.org/List-of-the-13-Internet-enemies.html
http://www.duihua.org/
http://www.irrepressible.info/addcontent, an Amnesty International project to subvert censorship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=288 freedom of the press reports up to 2006 only
He Qinlian www.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.../CRF-2006-2_MediaControlChina.pdf
There are some new books on censorship in China on amazon but I can't find anything about them or the authors.
EG More book information
Title Internet Censorship in the People's Republic of China: Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, Internet Police, Internet Forum, Golden Shield Project, Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China
Editors Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster
Publisher Alphascript Publishing, 2009
ISBN 613004531X, 9786130045319
Length 96 pages
To promote freedom of expression on the Internet, to protect United States businesses from coercion to participate in repression by authoritarian foreign governments, and for other purposes.
never became Law
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h110-275
Here is some stuff I have been looking at today
This is the site of veteran libertarian campaigner Long Hair http://www.longhair.hk/
Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China, a paper by Rebecca MacKinnon, available at
Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China:
http://books.google.com/books?id=I-95XzS7l8QC&lpg=PP1&dq=china%20internet&pg=PT4#v=onepage&q=&f=false
http://bbs1.people.com.cn/ The forum of the People's Daily
China's Communist Party: atrophy and adaptation By David L. Shambaugh, argues that the Propaganda system is both atrophying and adapting to the pressures of globalization, marketization, pleuralization and new technology: http://books.google.com/books?id=IOW6msgYWzwC&lpg=PR10&ots=PruY1JFwtB&dq=censorship%20shambaugh&lr=&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
My blog: http://blog.sina.com.cn/5tm74, when will they censor it?
http://www.rsf.org/List-of-the-13-Internet-enemies.html
http://www.duihua.org/
http://www.irrepressible.info/addcontent, an Amnesty International project to subvert censorship
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=288 freedom of the press reports up to 2006 only
He Qinlian www.hrichina.org/public/PDFs/CRF.../CRF-2006-2_MediaControlChina.pdf
There are some new books on censorship in China on amazon but I can't find anything about them or the authors.
EG More book information
Title Internet Censorship in the People's Republic of China: Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China, Internet Police, Internet Forum, Golden Shield Project, Ministry of Public Security of the People's Republic of China
Editors Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster
Publisher Alphascript Publishing, 2009
ISBN 613004531X, 9786130045319
Length 96 pages
2010年4月4日 星期日
New I am very angry blog on Sina
My sina blog http://blog.sina.com.cn/5tm74 has not been censored yet. Today posted this feminist comment:
我是个怒女奴。 中国是个重男轻女的是社会， 自古女人是奴隶，奴词根也来之女。奴隶要愤怒，不怒就没有心!
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