Blogs » Politics » Photo: beijing_found, by Jim O’Connell
Blogs » Politics » Photo: beijing_found, by Jim O’Connell |
- Photo: beijing_found, by Jim O’Connell
- Embattled Chinese officials raise death toll from Beijing storm to 77
- Policewoman receives attack when making discriminatory remarks against sex workers
- Bo Xilai’s wife charged with homicide Briton Neil Heywood
- Beijing Officials Raise Flood Death Toll
- Beijing Flood in Cartoons
- Chinese Social Media Reacts to Murder Indictment of Bo Xilai’s Wife
- Gu tried in Anhui
- Athena cosplay at ChinaJoy 2012 sweeps the Internet
- Bo Xilai’s Wife Charged with Heywood Killing (Updated)
- China’s New Political Class: The People
- Beijing Flood Stories Cut from Southern Weekend
- Sensitive Words: Beijing Flood
- The Daily Twit – 7/26/12: The Rain that Wasn’t, More Net Restrictions, and Beijing Homicide
- CNOOC-Nexen Politics Continues to Entertain
- The Empty Rhetoric of “Get Tough on China”
- In Rain, Beijing Government Compared to Japanese Occupation
- S. Korean hottie stirs Chinese web with her explicit video
- US Defends Value of Human Rights Dialogue
| Photo: beijing_found, by Jim O’Connell Posted: 26 Jul 2012 11:09 PM PDT © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Embattled Chinese officials raise death toll from Beijing storm to 77 Posted: 26 Jul 2012 01:22 PM PDT
Finally, there is the result from the Beijing authorities, after they announced to the public on Tuesday that they were still counting the number of people left dead in the worst-ever Beijing rainstorm in six decades when facing the questioning from the public on the initial death toll of 37. A total of 77 people were reported on Thursday evening by the Beijing flood control headquarters to have died from the storm. And a detailed list was also posted on the municipal government's official Sina Weibo account, including the victims' names, gender, ID numbers, birthplaces and locations where they were found. According to State-run Xinhua Agency, the identities of 66 bodies have now been confirmed, while the remaining 11 are awaiting to be identified. "Of the 77 victims, 66 have been identified, including five people who died while carrying out rescue work, Pan Anjun, a spokesman for the headquarters, said Thursday night. Of the other 61 victims — 36 men and 25 women — 46 drowned, five were electrocuted, three died in housing collapses, two by mudslide, two by traumatic shock, two from being hit by falling objects and one was struck by lightning, Pan said." The spokesman also said that it is not likely to happen that there will be a further sharp increase in death toll, as their search for missing persons is coming to an end. Then for the delay in reaching this final death count, he explained, "it was difficult to comb through the rain-triggered mudslide debris and identifying the bodies also took time." Netizens welcomed the update, though it is obvious that the officials were forced to raise the death toll. |
| Policewoman receives attack when making discriminatory remarks against sex workers Posted: 26 Jul 2012 10:36 AM PDT
Recently, a policewoman from Jiangxi province received a storm of attack from netizens for making discriminatory remarks against sex workers on Sina Weibo, which ultimately forced her to close her account. The incident started when a netizen tweeted a video showing two naked sex trade workers cried when questioned by police on Sina Weibo, which soon aroused indigniation among the netizens dennouncing that the police officers were actually more shameless than the whoremongers as it was an assault too wihtout covering the naked girls up while questioning them. The policewoman, nicknamed 女警薇博, read the entry too one day, and defended the police by criticising the sex workers, "Now you knew to cry in front of the police, why did not you cry before your clients?" The discriminatory remarks immediately triggered an onslaught of the negative comments from netizens aginst her on her Weibo account. The overwhelmed policeman made apologies the following days, but many netizens did not let it go and even dug out her old photos showing that she was carrying luxury products such as LV and Chanel bags while travelling. Under the pressure, the policeowman eventually deleted almost all of her posts, removed off her verification (as a policewoman), and changed her account name as well. Reporters later reached the public security bureau in Ganxian county, Jiangxi province, where the woman was serving, they said they have started investigating into the case, but the policewoman was not avaible as she has turned off her mobile phone for too much pressure. |
| Bo Xilai’s wife charged with homicide Briton Neil Heywood Posted: 26 Jul 2012 06:07 PM PDT
Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun were recently charged with intentional homicide by the Hefei People's Procuratorate in East China's Anhui province, Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday. The city prosecutors filed the charges with the Hefei Intermediate People's Court. Prosecutors have informed the two defendants and the family of the victim of their litigation rights during the investigation period, according to the Xinhua report. They have interrogated Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun and heard the opinions of their lawyers. Investigation results show that Bogu Kailai, one of the defendants, and her son had conflicts with the British citizen Neil Heywood over financial interests. Worrying about "Neil Heywood's threat" to her son's safety, Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun poisoned Neil Heywood to death, Xinhua cited prosecutors as saying. The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial, prosecutors said, suggesting the two defendants should be charged with intentional homicide. The Hefei Intermediate People's Court has received the case, and a trial date will be set. Bogu Kailai is the wife of Bo Xilai, former Party chief of Southwest China's Chongqing municipality and a former member of the Political Bureau of Communist Party of China Central Committee. In March Bo Xilai was replaced by Vice-Premier Zhang Dejiang as Party chief of Chongqing. In April, the CPC Central Committee suspended Bo from his posts at the committee and its Political Bureau because "Bo is suspected of being involved in serious violations of discipline". Bo is under investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xinhua
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| Beijing Officials Raise Flood Death Toll Posted: 26 Jul 2012 03:51 PM PDT Facing mounting public criticism and a crisis of credibility over the city's response to the weekend's flooding, Beijing officials raised the death toll from 37 to 77 on Thursday evening. From The Wall Street Journal:
Xinhua reports that a second storm bypassed Beijing on Wednesday and struck the nearby city of Tianjin instead, flooding roads and stopping air traffic. Angry bloggers have blasted Beijing's response to the floods on a scale not seen since last summer's Wenzhou high-speed rail disaster, according to The Financial Times, and The Los Angeles Times reports that online censors have scrambled to control the information flow as suspicious netizens have posted their own death toll figures. TIME's Austin Ramzy explores the sensitivity with which official death toll statistics are guarded in China:
See also previous CDT coverage of the flooding in Beijing. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Posted: 26 Jul 2012 03:01 PM PDT Political cartoonists have taken on the Beijing flood, posting images on Weibo and blogs that crystallize the major complaints to arise from this natural-and-man-made disaster: Cars stalled by the heavy rain Saturday were ticketed for parking violations. (Dashix) —How come my house flooded, but yours is okay? —Well, maybe you owe money for the sewers… (Pearl Forest) Beijing's drainage system was built decades ago, and has not been cleaned or expanded to keep up with the booming population. Netizens are galled at the Beijing municipal government's calls for donations to local charities. Many want to know why such a rich country has to "beg" for money. In Kuang Biao's cartoon, a greedy red box sporting the five stars and bright red of the Chinese flag holds up a sign for donations, impervious to being egged. A donation box. The hand is generously giving "my ass." Calls on Weibo to "donate my ass" went viral yesterday. The meme is now censored from Weibo searches. Parody of CCTV spin by Big Red Machine. Piranhas escaped into Guangxi's Liu River earlier this month. The propaganda machine has clamped down on news and online commentary on the floods, as well as the horrific Wenzhou train crash of July 23, 2011. (Peaceful House Pearl Shimao) © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Chinese Social Media Reacts to Murder Indictment of Bo Xilai’s Wife Posted: 26 Jul 2012 12:31 PM PDT  Not all political dramas are the same Season 2 of China's hottest political drama in more than a decade formally began with the announcement of the murder indictment of Gu Kailai and an assistant for poisoning a Brit, Neil Heywood. If you missed the sensational Season 1, you can catch Tea Leaf Nation's coverage here and here, and our profiles of Gu's husband, former political superstar Bo Xilai, the Red Prince, and son Bo Guagua, the Prodigal Melon. The Xinhua News Agency announced that a dispute involving economic interests arose among Gu Kailai, Bo Guagua and Neil Heywood. Believing that Heywood posed a threat to the safety of Bo Guagua, Gu Kailai poisoned him with the help of an accomplice, Zhang Xiaojun. Her husband Bo Xilai, who disappeared from public view in March and believed to be held under house arrest, was not mentioned.  Gu Kailai The news was immediately released by the official accounts of major media outlets on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter. However, the commenting function on threads announcing the news was disabled. For example, the post by Headline News (@头条新闻), Sina Weibo's official news release channel, was retweeted more than 21,000 times but showed no comments. The blocking of the commenting function could not stop ingenious media outlets and netizens bent on sharing the news and their own views. Using dashes, alphabetic spelling and other ways to disguise censored words, Chinese news media and netizens continue to follow the drama. "The giant curtain is lifting," [1] tweeted dedicated audience member @石勇-石头小栈. Here is a sampling of the range of reactions, from netizens who took up the roles of skeptics, prophets, commentators and philanthropists. @草民阿南 believes that the charges are a pretext for more sinister motives. "If you are bent on convicting someone of a crime, there is no shortage of ways of showing her guilt." [4] @旭日碧海蓝天 chimes in, "Groundless accusations…Is this a fantasy fiction? Haha." [5] Nonetheless there are those who choose to have faith in the prosecutors, like @Htigerdvd, who writes, "They wouldn't frame her for this kind of thing. We should believe the government." [6] What's Next? Some wondered how the drama will unfold. Xie Youping (谢佑平), the director of the Fudan University Center for Judicial and Litigation Research, tweeted, "This case probably won't have a public trial." [7] Attorney Si Weijiang (@斯伟江) disagrees. "[The trial] should be public, but you understand how it works. They've run out of visitors' passes." [8] Attorney He Peihua (@何培华律师) also shares his professional assessment: "Two defendants indicted with murder, at least one will be sentenced to a commuted death sentence or worse." [9]@禅宗七祖 agrees and shares his prediction, "One given a death sentence and the other a commuted death sentence. The accomplice will die and Gu Kailai will not. Let this tweet be my witness." [10]  Gu Kailai's husband, the ousted Chongqing governor Bo Xilai Is it just politics? But no matter what happens, some netizens are pondering the bigger picture. @雨过天晴merry tweets, "I knew this matter would be made into a criminal case and thereby tone down the political dimension." [11] @持之以恒创新改变生活 is not fazed by the political dimension, tweeting, "Fight it out. How can there be reform if there is not infighting." [12] @扑鸟个通 tweets, "Although it might be political persecution, I think it's a good thing that Bo loses out. His 'red movement' scares me even in retrospect."[13] @大字半斗 gives his summary, "1) The indictment is low profile and shows they want a 'cold treatment.' 2) They emphasize the murder and the motive, but not the US$60 million [rumored to be the amount involved in Gu's corrupt dealings] and the ideological differences [between Bo Xilai and other leaders], 3) Left open the possibility for Gu to get out of a death sentence, and left space for Bo Xilai to re-emerge onto the political stage, so it is a happy ending for all." [14] What Does It Have to Do With Us?  Let's not forget Finally, a number of netizens reminded people that watching too much political drama may be bad for you. @love四叶幸运草2010 tweets, "This is a battle among the gods. It's dangerous being a spectator. Probably better to be a dummy." [15] Probably mindful of the lives lost in the recent rainstorm in Beijing, @伊夫岛 tweets, "There are so many things that need our attention, but this particular matter has nothing to do with us!" [16]
Footnotes (? returns to text)
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| Posted: 26 Jul 2012 08:29 AM PDT The official Xinhua News reported that the Neil Heywood murder case had been started in Hefei, Anhui. British citizen Neil Heywood was alleged to be poisoned by Bo-Gu Kailai, wife of CCP's Politburo member and Charisma Party Chief in Chongqing, Bo Xilai. It is believed to be the largest political scandal in decades. It is rumored Shen Zhijing (Beijing) will join the legal defense team of Bo-Gu Kailai, along with Jiang Min (Anhui). Shen defended former Deputy Minister of the Public Security Ministry Li Jizhou. Jiang, being the deputy president of national association of attorneys, is not a trial lawyer. Although it is understandable to have the case tried in a neutral third place, away from Bo's Chongqing, Anhui is still an interesting pick being one of the most poor areas lagging behind the nation. Why? The answer is that Anhui is the hometown and power base of Chief Justice Wang Shengjun. Born 1946 in Suxian, Anhui, Wang attended Hefei Normal College in 1966, majoring in History. Due to the start of the Great Cultural Revolution in early 1966, Wang did not have much formal college education. Wang never took a course in legal related areas, and never worked a single day at a court. Still Wang was named the (ninth) Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of People in 2008. One month after resumed the Chief Justice position, Wang published a sentencing rule on death penalty, where are: 1) law; 2) security status; 3) social feelings. The three point guidance make many law experts puzzled. Anhui Province is an interesting place. In a sense it is the miniature of China. A small province known for its poverty, Anhui has contributed to numerous famous people in Chinese history. Many scientists, businessmen, political strongmen come from Anhui in thousands of years, probably more than any other place in China. Yet, Anhui itself remained one of the most poor area with the most corrupt political systems.  |
| Athena cosplay at ChinaJoy 2012 sweeps the Internet Posted: 26 Jul 2012 02:48 AM PDT
Scantily-clad showgirls are still the highlight of the largest annual digital gaming expo in China attracting tens of thousands of Otaku die-hards to have a visit, though there's the notice from the relevant authority to crack down on "vulgarity" and more male models and cross-dressers are hired to showcase game products this time too. But who's the first-day star among so many beautiful and sexy babes of the ChinaJoy 2012 that opened to the public in Shanghai on Thursday? The answer definitely is, The latest Athena cosplay by a 22-year-old babe, named Li Ling (李玲) from Hunan. Innocent look and short costume to make her lace panties and shape of her private part visible to the masses. People were outrageously impressed! Soon, more information of the post-90s girl was published too, as her Athena cosplay photos went viral online. In fact, the Hunan-born beauty attended last year's ChinaJoy as well, but she did not catch the public's eyes. She also worked as a Tao Girl (a model hired by merchants at China's largest shopping site Taobao to pose for products), and co-starred some online micro-films. But she only became known in this year's game fair. Obviously, she was determined to sell her out now. Check below more photos of her.
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| Bo Xilai’s Wife Charged with Heywood Killing (Updated) Posted: 26 Jul 2012 09:58 AM PDT Xinhua reports that Gu Kailai, wife of Bo Xilai, and Zhang Xiaojun, a family aide, have been charged with the "intentional homicide" of British businessman Neil Heywood. Heywood's death in November last year led to Bo's sudden fall from grace in February, cutting short his expected ascent to the highest levels of the Party and national government.
Xinhua uses the unconventional compound family name "Bogu", apparently to emphasise the connection between husband and wife. Bo's own case is not mentioned, but the announcement of Gu's charges may indicate that it will soon reach a conclusion. From CNN:
As in the case of Chen Guangcheng's nephew Chen Kegui, CNN reports that the family's own choice of lawyers has been pushed aside by government appointees. New York University law professor Jerome Cohen recently argued that frequent obstruction of criminal suspects' legal defence "make[s] a mockery of China's claims to have established 'a socialist rule of law with Chinese characteristics'". Update, 18:52 PST: Tea Leaf Nation has collected social media reactions to the premiere of "Season 2 of China's hottest political drama". Some netizens have debated the charges' credibility or speculated about the outcome, while others questioned whether "a battle among the gods" really has anything to do with them. Others, though, have been keen to analyse the big political picture:
The Guardian's Tania Branigan also explored the political context, and argued that far from highlighting the "Bogu" marriage as suggested above, the authorities may hope to separate the two cases as far as possible.
The timing of the announcement may have been intended to avoid too much public attention to any aspect of the case. From Keith Richburg at The Washington Post:
But a Global Times editorial suggested that public attention to Gu's trial should actually be encouraged:
The obstruction of the family's choice of lawyers and the fact that state media have already declared the evidence to be "irrefutable and substantial" (see above) suggest that the legal proceedings may in fact be less than exemplary. Suspicions are rife that the prosecution has become a political tool. From Andrew Jacobs at The New York Times:
See more on Bo Xilai, Gu Kailai and Neil Heywood via CDT, or refresh your memory with Olga Khazan's summary at The Washington Post. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| China’s New Political Class: The People Posted: 26 Jul 2012 09:08 AM PDT  Chinese people power has arrived. As China's top officials meet in Beidaihe to finalize their selections for the country's new leadership, they are being overshadowed by a different, and increasingly potent, political class—the Chinese people. From Beijing to Jiangsu to Guangdong, Chinese citizens are making their voices heard on the Internet and their actions felt on the streets. Take the terrible flooding in Beijing this past weekend. Thus far, the municipal government estimates that the flooding has caused around $1.88 billion in damages, with more than 65,ooo residents evacuated from their homes and 77 dead. The local government was clearly caught flat-footed: the early warning system failed; police officers were reportedly busy ticketing stranded cars rather than helping citizens in need; and workers at toll plazas continued to collect fees as people desperately tried to escape the rising waters. Popular criticism over the government's handling of the crisis has been unrelenting, and even the state-supported Global Times has reported on how the government's credibility was damaged by its weak response. Yet in important ways, the government's inaction has become a secondary story. Beijing residents didn't wait for their officials to do the right thing. As China Digital Times described, Weibo came alive with offers of help: "I live near Tiantan East Gate. If anyone nearby needs to rest, you can come to my place…"; "My office is at Zuojiazhuang A2 Beijing Friendship Garden 1-6H. We have water, snacks, TV, computers, wifi, beds sofas, Sanguo Sha and hot showers! All for free!…" Hundreds of people drove to Beijing Capital Airport to try to assist the 80,000 odd passengers stranded there. Further down China's coast, a different form of people power has emerged, and a new generation of political activists is taking hold. In Qidong, Jiangsu province, public health concerns have led thousands of high school students and others to organize a protest to block the construction of a new sewage treatment plant. Via the Internet, the students found inspiration in the June protest in Shifang, Sichuan Province, where tens of thousands of people (including high school students) blocked plans for a molybdenum-copper alloy factory. With the Qidong protest slated for this coming Saturday, local officials are working overtime to quash the demonstration, even calling teachers back from their vacations to pressure the students to stay home. Further south in Foshan, Guangdong Province, Chinese villagers once again took to the streets in an attempt to obtain justice in the face of local official corruption and illegal land grabs. Here too, the Internet proved a decisive factor: local residents first learned about the illegal land sales by reading government websites. Chinese officials are grappling with how best to navigate this growing phenomenon of Chinese people power facilitated by the Internet. Certainly, they are trying to co-opt the technology to get their own message out to the people. Many officials and government offices have Weibo accounts which they use to communicate directly with their constituents: in one county in Zhejiang Province, a Weibo writing test is now included in the promotion exam for local officials. And, while Party censors have responded in their usual heavy-handed manner to the criticism surrounding Beijing's flood response, Beijing municipal government spokeswoman Wang Hui has used her personal account to address the concerns of the people in a relatively open and direct manner, calling the people's discontent "very normal" and acknowledging that the government has much work to do. Some in the Party leadership also recognize that the challenge they face in building good governance is more than good messaging. At a recent gathering of municipal party secretaries, Li Yuanchao, who oversees personnel appointments from his perch as head of the Organization Department and is a likely candidate for the Standing Committee of the Politburo, spoke forcefully of the need for local party secretaries to "understand and comply with the will of the people." Moreover, he emphasized officials must understand that they are basically "servants of the public" and that the satisfaction of the public is the most basic measure of the officials' work. Li's message is one that has been delivered many times in recent years, apparently to little effect. It seems, however, that the country's newest political actors—the Chinese people—have heard Li's message and are more than willing to take to the web and to the streets to let their local officials know they are not going to forget it. |
| Beijing Flood Stories Cut from Southern Weekend Posted: 26 Jul 2012 08:43 AM PDT Eight pages of reporting on the Beijing flood were pulled from today's edition of Southern Weekend before going to press. Several of the paper's editors have voiced their anger on Weibo, while some reporters have posted photos of the missing copy, complete with the handwritten remarks of censors. Weibo posts from Southern Weekend staff have been deleted en masse by Sina. CDT Chinese collected these posts and images from Weibo:
 Censor's comments in red on Southern Weekend's flood stories. Text in screen capture:
 A "skylight" of advertisements in today's edition of Southern Weekend. Via CDT Chinese. If you would like to reuse this content, please follow the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 agreement. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Sensitive Words: Beijing Flood Posted: 26 Jul 2012 07:11 AM PDT As of July 26, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the "search for user" function): See also yesterday's list of sensitive words related to the flood. Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results. CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese's latest sensitive words post. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| The Daily Twit – 7/26/12: The Rain that Wasn’t, More Net Restrictions, and Beijing Homicide Posted: 26 Jul 2012 06:38 AM PDT Well, the big rainstorm that was supposed to bring Deluge #2 last night gave us a miss and made residents of Tianjin miserable instead. Here in the nation's capital, there was still a lot of talk about the floods, the body count, and the government: LA Times: China flooding gives government another credibility crisis – A deadly rainstorm in Beijing has led to accusations that officials underreported the toll and failed to ensure the city's infrastructure can handle flooding. NPR: 'China's Katrina': Second City Flooded; Corruption, Incompetence Blamed — Outrage in China about the dozens of deaths last weekend when Beijing's drainage system couldn't cope with heavy rains and much of the city was flooded has been followed by more frustration and anger today. CNN: Mayor of Beijing's worst flood-hit district apologizes — News update plus a photo gallery. In other news: Chinese Law Prof Blog: Olympic uniforms, Congressional fashion statements, and the WTO – Excellent discussion of the WTO law aspects of the Olympic uniform "scandal." Reuters: China labels U.S. helicopter allegations fictitious – Did China develop its domestic attack helicopter on its own or was it helped by restricted tech exports from the U.S.? New Yorker: Q. & A.: The Cybersecurity Bill, China, and Innovation – Evan Osnos talks with Adam Segal about cybersecurity issues. Global Times: Beijing police launch Internet restrictions – The police chief of Beijing has warned that Web users who "attack" leaders of the Communist Party of China and the country, or the current system will be severely punished, raising concerns over control of online speech. (You know, I would have thought this warning was unnecessary, but maybe that's just me.) China Daily: Cybercrime flourishes in new areas – Apparently there's been a recent surge in weapons and porn activity on the Net. The cops are all over it. My only suggestion is that they might want to go after the guns before the naked breasts. Priorities! Rhodium Group: Chinese FDI in the United States: Q1 and Q2 2012 Update – Excellent short briefing on Chinese outward investment to the U.S. Everyone always talks about this, here's a real analysis. Jack Perkowski: Why Nexen Is Different: The Politics Of Supply – An explanation of why this deal is different from UNOCAL and Potash, and why regulatory approval will be forthcoming. Reuters: Shell ups China presence with CNOOC tie-up – Shell said it agreed to two partnership deals with CNOOC, one to explore for oil and gas in the Yinggehai basin in the South China Sea, and one to look for hydrocarbons off the coast of Gabon. Just as I was writing this, the news broke that Bogu Kailai had been formally charged with homicide. No doubt this will be the big story for tomorrow. In the meantime, you can read this: China says Bo's wife indicted for homicide: Xinhua. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| CNOOC-Nexen Politics Continues to Entertain Posted: 26 Jul 2012 03:54 AM PDT
So much to love here. I particularly enjoy the unmentioned regret that the U.S. can't simply order the Canadians to do what it wants by fiat. Such a pity. Also giggle-worthy is the fact that Forbes' China group in the House, the Congressional China Caucus, is actually a China-bashing group, which proudly led the charge against CNOOC in its bid for UNOCAL. You'd think maybe the "China Caucus" would be a group interested in US-China relations or something. Imagine if the Congressional Black Caucus was a front group for a bunch of racists and you see what I mean. (More on the China Caucus some day in the near future – I feel some research coming upon me.) Forbes is also a member of the Congressional Prayer Caucus, and although it's not in my nature, I won't use this opportunity to piss all over that group. I also got a kick out of the whole "right off our shores" mentality Forbes used. Echoes of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Oooh, Canadian petroleum engineers working for Chinese shareholders thousands of miles away. Scary! And finally, I chuckled out loud reading about how that oil that will be extracted by China could have been used by the U.S. instead. Forbes probably thinks the word "fungible" means "of or pertaining to mushrooms." Forbes should have a chat with his friends that are in the pocket of Big Oil; he certainly doesn't seem to understand how the global petroleum market works. Just for the record, Forbes is not in the pocket of the petroleum industry. No, he's a whore for the defense industry, and we all know that the defense contractors desperately need the US vs. China meme to justify expenditures on heavy armaments. Without the China boogeyman, there aren't a lot of other big bad guys out there with which to scare the American public (and jack up the defense budget). I hope these guys keep this stuff going. I can always use a good laugh. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| The Empty Rhetoric of “Get Tough on China” Posted: 26 Jul 2012 02:46 AM PDT
Before I get to the specifics, I really wish Miller, who is after all writing a column in one of America's most respected newspapers (well, it used to be), would avoid using juvenile language like "getting tough" and "who's got the guts" when talking about the most important bilateral relationship in the world. The subject deserves better than B-movie dialog. John Wayne would have made a really shitty Secretary of State. Moreover, it's clear that Miller is taking it for granted that China has somehow being riding roughshod over the U.S. in terms of trade and other issues. This is common with some China critics, although few of them actually can point to specific policies or bilateral areas where China has somehow taken advantage of the U.S. Sometimes WTO accession will be cited as something that the wily Chinese slipped in when the U.S. wasn't looking. I seem to remember an alternate reality, where the U.S. was pulling out all the diplomatic stops to get that deal through, but maybe I was insane during 1999 and forgot what really happened. I think the mentality is that since China has been growing faster than the U.S. and enjoys a sizable trade surplus with America, some sort of skullduggery must have taken place. Like all the U.S. politicians who insist that "U.S. workers can out-compete anyone in the world," the assumption here is that China used underhanded means to get where it is today. The reality is, of course, that China is a big place, it opened up to the world after years of a closed-door policy, and grew rapidly because of high levels of investment and low wages. Doesn't take a rocket science to figure out why China grew fast. And yes, some of that growth was due to counterfeit products, lax environmental standards and so on. But that doesn't nearly account for the vast majority of growth here. Chinese anti-U.S. rhetoric, which is more in-your-face jingoism, is much easier to dismiss. It usually doesn't involve a policy argument, more like "The U.S. wants China to fail," or "The U.S. is subverting Chinese political stability from within." Rather black-and-white silliness. The type of argument Miller engages in is more difficult to deal with, since he talks policy and cites studies and experts. Sounds quite reasonable, almost scholarly, albeit completely misguided. Let's take a closer look. What does Miller rely on to make his case? Two experts. First, an economist from an organization that has been very aggressive in its own right when it comes to China policy:
Miller goes on a bit about currency manipulation, nothing we haven't discussed umpteen times before on this blog. But did he really have to go with someone from the Peterson Institute? These guys, particularly Fred Bergsten, have been savagely beating the RMB drum for years now. Perhaps Miller already made up his mind on this issue and then went to a source that he knew would back up his viewpoint. Lame. I don't know anything about Joseph Gagnon, but the source gives me pause. Here's expert number two:
Miller also includes some additional detail here that I left out. I figured it wasn't really necessary. All you have to do is read that "one-sixth of what it should be" line to realize that this Brock guy, at least on this issue, is in very lonely territory. I haven't read any serious economist, government, or institution make that claim, at least not recently. In fact, even the IMF has "softened" its position on the RMB:
And just what is Miller's solution to all this? Some of it is simple hand-wringing. The U.S. should have done X, Y & Z when it could, and maybe now it's too late. But he also suggests that perhaps a WTO case or a punitive tariff might be in order, both ridiculous policy moves in terms of law as well as US-China relations. During this campaign season, I've seen quite a few "let's get tough on China" columns from Americans. Although I generally don't like any of them, at least some commentators martial some decent arguments. Miller apparently thinks that if he throws anything together with the words "China," "currency manipulation," "tough," "jobs," and "mercantilist," no one will notice that he forgot to set out a decent argument. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| In Rain, Beijing Government Compared to Japanese Occupation Posted: 25 Jul 2012 10:51 AM PDT Several days after a sudden thunder storm in Beijing, human casualty number remains a national secret. The deputy major of Beijing said the government would release the number 'at a proper time'. Chinese people are comparing the handling of heavy rain by the communist government of Beijing to that by the Japanese occupation authority in 1939 in Tianjin, a neighboring port city 80 miles east on the coast of Bohai Bay. Tianjin was the second largest city in China, and the manufacture, economic and financial center of the North. At the time, two years after the city fell to Japanese invasion, large part of the city was still under control of the western concessions, which were surrounded and blocked by Japanese army. When a historic flood attacked the city, the Japanese army worked with western authorities in the rescue effort. Commander General Masaharu Homma set up a commission with representatives from China, Japan, Great Britain and France. General Homma deployed IJA 27th Division to battled the flood. In addition, he ordered all hospitals to open to public without charge, all boats were expropriated for rescue mission. Gross root organizations were encouraged to help. A detailed report was released 7 days after the water receded. On the night of July 21, 2012, unknown number of Beijing residents perished at their homes and in their cars. Mr. Ding Zhijian was driving home when his car was stuck in water under Guangqumen Overpass. Mr. Ding called his wife at 7:40pm, and ask her to get help because he couldn't reach the police hotline. In the next 20 minutes, with the last call registered at around 8:00pm, he would call his wife several more times because he couldn't open the door. Mr. Ding even broke his skull when trying to break the window. Mrs. Ding set out from their house at Ganluyuan, which is 5 miles to the east, rushed to the scene at around 8:30pm. She was stopped in traffic, and ran half of the course on foot, with a hammer she took from home to break the door window. Mr. Ding's co-works and colleagues from partner company also arrived. At the time, police, fire fighters and military police were already lined up. Not surprisingly, because this was at the very center of Beijing only minutes from the Tiananmen Square, and it was a section of main road, the 2nd ring beltway. Beijing has a six ring beltway road system. However, despite Mr. Ding's repeatedly begging, officers and soldiers refused to do anything. They even refused to take a look. Some officers told Mr. Ding's wife, they would wait for senior officers and the TV station. Two hours later, after senior officers and TV crew arrived, they started the rescue and pulled Mr. Ding's car out. The video footage was aired as a propaganda message of how senior officials and military fight the flood.  Mr. Ding left behind his wife and a 3 years old daughter. At the funeral, it was overhead that Mrs. Ding was telling her daughter, father had become a star in the sky to look after you. The little girl then asked, 'with so many stars, how do I tell which one is Daddy?' Ding might not have died if it were not his wife's complaint for his being late for home. On that day in the afternoon, Ding received a phone call from his boss for a business getting together with a partner company after work. Mrs. Ding was not happy and asked him not to go. Ding promised he would come home for dinner. When the meeting ended around 7:30pm, Ding insisted going home although a dinner had been arranged by the partner. 10 minutes later, when Ding reached Guangqumen overpass, there was already water on the road, but Ding decided to rush through, and failed.  It's impossible to imagine Mr. Ding's desperation when trying to break out from the black Hyundai Tucson. Mr. Ding told his wife he couldn't open the door because of the pressure from water. Some people also suggested the all electronic door locks might also have failed if the battery was short circuited by the water. If that was the case, then there was no way to open the door from inside. While some people suggested going to the trunk for the lug wrench (to break the Window). This may not be easy either, on a company SUV. The opening of the spare tire compartment is towards the rear. The handler is hard to reach from front without part of your body blocking the the cover board from opening up.  It sounds surreal, but the story was first released by Mr. Ding's co-workers on Weibo, then confirmed by a newspaper investigative report. Beijing Police Chief Fu Zhenghua quickly responded to criticism online. Mr. Fu told reporters anyone who criticizes the government or senior officials on the Internet would face severe punishment. Mr. Fu revealed that 5,007 individuals had been apprehended for improper postings online, 366 thousand posts had been deleted as of July 24. Fu announced the crackdown on online speech will carry on until August 31st. Newspaper were ordered not to write about the rain. Southern Weekends was ordered to remove all 8 pages of coverage of flood coverage. |
| S. Korean hottie stirs Chinese web with her explicit video Posted: 25 Jul 2012 05:55 PM PDT Recently, several screenshots captured from an explicit video featuring a beautiful young hottie, who is believed to a famous South Korean TV hostess, have gone viral on Chinese websphere. It was rumored that there were a series of four of such explicit video clips, but it turned out only one is real. The clip in 30 minutes long displays the horny girl in see-through lingerie poses in a sexy manner and dances dirty in front of a camera in a private room. Many netizens have cried out that the girl's hot figure and postures have taken their breath away. The search volume for the downloading address of the video is also very high on the web. Ning Caishen (@宁财神), a popular writer behind the hit TV comedy My Own Swordsman (武林外传), also followed it up and made fun on his Weibo, by tweeting that he wants to get the seeds of the downloading torrents too and hopes that there is a trilogy.
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| US Defends Value of Human Rights Dialogue Posted: 26 Jul 2012 01:19 AM PDT At a Wednesday briefing on this week's two-day U.S.-China Human Rights Dialogue in Washington, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner noted a number of cases raised during the talks, including Xinjiang and Tibet, and individuals including Liu Xiaobo, Gao Zhisheng, Ni Yulan and Chen Guangcheng's nephew Chen Kegui. Human rights organisations have criticised the annual talks as a diplomatic smoke screen obscuring a lack of real progress. From Rebecca Berg at The New York Times:
Posner attempted to address this criticism during questions after the briefing:
A Global Times report, on the other hand, was fairly dismissive of the process, stating that the US would "continue its preaching" without applying real pressure:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us |
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