| Fruit Knives, Taxi Windows in Pre-Congress Crackdown Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:15 PM PDT With the start of the 18th Party Congress less than two weeks away, Barbara Demick catalogues the broad range of restrictions imposed on Beijingers to ensure that all goes harmoniously. From the Los Angeles Times: Since last month, in the name of security, Chinese authorities have turned to various baffling regulations that are snuffing much of the life out of Beijing, and police have increased their presence to keep the capital's streets free of problems. As a result, many residents are finding the country's political event of the decade to be nothing more than a colossal inconvenience. Countless public events — cultural, sporting and business — have been canceled or postponed with no explanation and scant notice. […] The inconveniences are large and small: Yang Rui, a nationalist television host sometimes dubbed the Rush Limbaugh of China, complained on his blog about a recent experience in a supermarket. "I looked everywhere for a fruit knife, but I failed. So I asked the clerk. He said, 'All knives are off the shelf before the 18th party congress.'"
According to Global Times' Liu Meng,Beijing tranport authorities have ordered that taxis' rear windows be disabled until further notice. A taxi driver from Xinyue Lianhe taxi company, surnamed Wang, confirmed to the Global Times Sunday that he was informed of the regulation at his company's monthly meeting on October 13. […] "The company management said at the meeting that in the past, some passengers had thrown leaflets out of the taxi window, or inserted leaflets into ping-pong balls and threw them out, or would let go of a balloon which had leaflets tied to it," he said. […] But many cab drivers do not seem to have heeded the instruction. Over the course of two hours, a Global Times reporter found that only two of about 20 taxis seen at Beijing Railway Station, Dongdan and Xidan, all in central Beijing, had disabled the handle.
On the bright side, Caixin passed on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's reassurance that the Internet will not be switched off during the congress: in fact, it will "undergo maintenance to ensure it runs smoothly."
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Beijing, Internet censorship, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stability maintenance, taxi drivers, taxis, yang rui
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| Photo: Tea fields, Ningbo, by le niners Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:13 PM PDT |
| Confessions of a Chinese Nationalist Posted: 28 Oct 2012 09:49 PM PDT As more and more Chinese students are seeking alternatives to the stressful gaokao (college entrance exam), some are making their way to foreign universities where they find their original values subverted by culture shock. Zilong Gong, a Chinese student at Hampshire College, discusses his personal transformation during his three years in the United States, via Huffington Post: I took people's criticism of China very personally. Like a conditioned reflex, I would jump on any critiques of China, and rush to defend whatever the Chinese government did. Seventeen years of patriotic education showed its value by providing me with all kinds of slogans. If someone mentioned human rights issues in China, I would immediately fire back: "You Western hypocrites, stop pointing fingers and promoting your ideology. That's our internal affair." Or, I would tell people that my goal in life is to make China rich and powerful, the 21st century superpower. [...] But slowly and painfully, I came to understand a few things through living and studying in the U.S. [...] I realized that before I am a Chinese, I am a human being. And before I am a human being, I am just another one of the millions of sentient beings. If I am able to love China, then I should be able to love all cultures and nations in the world. And if I can love humanity, then there is no reason why I shouldn't care about all sentient beings on earth with the same humility and compassion. So, a new identity and mission emerged from the rubbles of unexamined nationalism. This inner transformation is one of the reasons why I came to a liberal arts college in the U.S. in the first place. Through questioning and being questioned, through critique and self-reflection, we let go of the comfort of the familiar chains and learn to embrace the foreignness of a new freedom of mind and character. Such transformation is by no means uncommon among international students in the U.S., or American students who study abroad. This is the power of education, of travel, and of critical thinking.
See more on overseas Chinese students via CDT.
© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chinese students, education, nationalism, overseas Chinese students, study abroad, U.S. universities
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| Wen Family Lawyers Challenge New York Times Exposé Posted: 28 Oct 2012 09:35 PM PDT Lawyers for the family of Wen Jiabao have issued a statement on David Barboza's investigation of their business dealings and reported $2.7 billion fortune, published on Friday at The New York Times. According to the statement, obtained by the South China Morning Post, "the so-called 'hidden riches' of Wen Jiabao's family members in The New York Times' report does not exist …. We will continue to make clarifications regarding untrue reports by The New York Times, and reserve the right to hold it legally responsible." The lawyers claimed that those of Wen's relatives who have engaged in business activities have done nothing illegal, and hold no shares in any companies; that his mother has never received any income or property besides her regular salary and pension; and that Wen himself has never interceded on their behalf or allowed policies to be affected by his family's financial interests. Several points addressed statements not made in the Times article. "In fact," wrote Donald Clarke at China Law Prof Blog, "the statement disputes remarkably little […. T]he lawyers' statement really challenges only one specific assertion – that Wen's mother is a multi-millionaire – and one general assertion – that several of his relatives own shares in various corporations." From Keith Bradsher's report on the statement at The New York Times: The statement was not a sweeping denial of the article. The statement acknowledged that some family members were active in business and that they "are responsible for all their own business activities." While the statement disputed that Mr. Wen's mother had held assets, it did not address the calculation in the article that the family had controlled assets worth at least $2.7 billion. Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for The Times, expressed confidence in the article. "We are standing by our story, which we are incredibly proud of and which is an example of the quality investigative journalism The Times is known for," she wrote in an e-mail. The lawyers' statement represents an unusual move for the family of a senior Chinese leader. When Bloomberg News published an article in late June describing real estate and other assets held by the family of Vice President Xi Jinping, his family did not respond publicly.
(See CDT's coverage of the Bloomberg article and subsequent censorship.) Speaking with Simon Rabinovitch of The Financial Times, the Brookings Institution's Cheng Li said that this "unprecedented" response is encouraging: "Wen Jiabao is behaving differently from other Chinese leaders. His reaction can potentially be a positive example." At the South China Morning Post, Shi Jiangtao discussed the different reactions to the two investigations, and the Times article's possible impact on transparency reforms: Zhang Lifan, a Beijing-based political analyst, said the image-conscious premier, who had always boasted a "clean" image, had no choice but to fight back. "The Times' report has forced Wen's hand … Of course the best way to dismiss allegations is for Wen to become the first mainland leader to disclose his personal assets," Zhang said. Both [Zhang and Zhu Lijia, of the Chinese Academy of Governance] noted that when the family of Vice-President Xi Jinping was subject to similar attacks in June by Bloomberg he kept quiet. "Xi apparently chose to bide his time as the leader-in-waiting while Wen, who will step down next year, chose to fight as he has nothing much to lose," Zhang said.
Experts consulted by the Post's Keith Zhai felt that the statement's threat of legal action against the Times would probably come to nothing: He Weifang, a law expert at Peking University, said the statement was more of a gesture than a substantial legal document. "It was a demonstration of the attitude of a single party [the Wen family], intended to show the Chinese public that [The New York Times] report wasn't factually correct," He said. If the Wen family does take the Times to court, it could be a formidable undertaking. "Then the case would get bigger … and even out of control," He said. "Based on this rationale, I reckon it's not likely [the Wen family] would sue The Times." […] Pu Zhiqiang, a Beijing-based civil rights lawyer specialising in press freedom and defamation cases, said the statement was more like a declaration of innocence. "It's understandable why the family asked the lawyers to make the statement, but to me it didn't say anything. It's more like a public oath or some act of public relations."
At IHT Rendezvous, Mark McDonald described Chinese authorities' efforts to stifle discussion of Barboza's report, citing CDT's Sensitive Words post on blocked weibo search terms. Delivery in China of the the hard-copy Tribune carrying the article, meanwhile, was variable. From NPR's Louisa Lim and the Los Angeles Times' Julie Makinen: Surprised my IHT arrived intact today.Expected to see whole WJB-related pages torn out. — Louisa Lim (@limlouisa) October 27, 2012
Hilarious. This is how a hotel explained why the IHT (with NYT story on Wen $$) would not be delivered in Beijing Sat. twitter.com/JulieMakLAT/st… — Julie Makinen (@JulieMakLAT) October 28, 2012
For more on fallout from the investigation, see 'New York Times Wen Exposé Makes Waves' at CDT.
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Post tags: Bloomberg, donald clarke, He Weifang, Internet censorship, new york times, newspapers, pu zhiqiang, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping, Zhang Lifan
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| Tombstone, the 1959-1961 Famine in China Posted: 28 Oct 2012 09:34 PM PDT In the Wall Street Journal, Michael Fathers writes a book review for Yang Jisheng's "Tombstone", a detailed account revealing long-concealed facts of the Great Famine during 1959-1961 under Mao's reign: For the general reader, "Mao's Great Famine" is unlikely to be bettered. "Tombstone" is something quite different, a condensed, yet magisterial 600-page edition of a densely detailed, two-volume Chinese-language account by Yang Jisheng, a retired Chinese journalist and Communist Party member. [...] As a teenager in 1959, Mr. Yang watched his father die of starvation. Years later, while working in a senior editorial post at Xinhua, China's state-controlled news agency, he began his own search for the truth behind the famine. The author spent 20 years tracking down survivors across China and using his authority as a respected Communist cadre to access provincial archives. It was, in part, expiation for his shame in not questioning his father's death. [...] Mr. Yang concludes that Mao Zedong knew early on that his policies of extracting extortionate levels of foodstuffs from an impoverished countryside were killing millions. He uncovers the "arrest plans" and the quotas given to the police and militia for each province in dealing with those accused of speaking out against the Great Leap Forward and the regime. It was as if the quotas were political production targets. In 1958 Anhui province, a center of the famine, was given an "arrest quota" from the central government of 45,000 people. Officials surpassed the quota with 101,000 arrests. Many of those arrested died of starvation in labor camps.
See more on Yang Jisheng and the Great Leap Forward via CDT.
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Post tags: Chinese history, famine, great leap forward, PRC history, Yang Jisheng
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| A Coded Message Between “Sea-Watcher” Pres. Obama and the Chinese State? Posted: 28 Oct 2012 12:16 PM PDT  U.S. President Obama may be known as "Renegade" to his secret service details, but the code word for him on China's social media is "Sea-Watcher" (观海). Some call him "O-Sea-Watcher" (奥观海), giving a nod to his last name, while others, ever so endearingly, refer to him as Comrade Sea-Watcher (观海同志).
For example, concerned citizen @LY_chnis tweeted on Sina Weibo, "Feel like Comrade Sea-Watcher grew grey hair overnight. Did Romney-the-Fattie lose some weight? How come he looks so much fitter in such a short period of time!" [1] The origin of this seemingly nonsensical nickname actually dates back several years. During a trip to China in 2009, President Obama received two gifts from General Yuan Wei, director of China's National Military Museum. One was a stylized tiger figurine, another a Chinese calligraphy scroll with the phrase, "Watch the Sea and Listen to the Waves" (观海听涛).  As early as 300 B.C., Chinese emperors once gave these types of tiger figurines (虎符) to military generals as a symbol of imperial authority that allowed the generals to command troops. On the same day that General Yuan met with Obama, the military museum gave the same figurines to 100 Chinese generals to thank them for their services. As for the calligraphy scroll, the character for "waves" (涛 tao) is the same character found in President Hu Jintao's name.
So, if you are connecting the dots as China's social media users are, theses gifts are a coded message that Obama is a vassal of the Celestial Dynasty, and he needs to watch China from across the Pacific and listen to President Hu's commands. Footnotes (? returns to text) - 观海同志感觉一夜间长了白发 罗胖是不是减肥了？！怎么能短时间感觉突然fit好多啊！！?
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| China on Orange Alert Over Typhoon Son-Tinh Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:26 AM PDT The death toll from typhoon Son-Tinh has risen sharply in the Philippines as the storm continued to head towards China. According to AlertNet, the typhoon reached China at around 15:00 GMT: Typhoon Son-tinh struck China at about 15:00 GMT on 27 October.Data supplied by the US Navy and Air Force Joint Typhoon Warning Center suggest that the point of landfall was near 17.8 N,108.3 E.Son-tinh brought 1-minute maximum sustained winds to the region of around 203 km/h (126 mph).Wind gusts in the area may have been considerably higher. There is also the potential for flooding further inland due to heavy rain.
This storm comes amid various natural disasters, such as a landslide in Yunnan that buried a school and super typhoon Sanba. Xinhua reports that China was on orange alert, the second highest level on a four-tiered alert system, with high waves expected: The National Marine Environmental Forecasting Center said the tropical storm developed into a typhoon early Saturday morning and was heading toward the northwest with the same strength or slightly gaining force. According to the forecast, waves up to five to eight meters will be seen in the west part of the sea in the 24 hours starting Saturday noon. Waves of three to five meters will be seen in the Northern Bay. Waves up to 3.5 to 4.5 meters high will hit seas off the eastern and southern Hainan province. There could also be waves of two to three meters off the western Hainan province and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. It has forecast up to 80 cm of precipitation on Saturday along the coast of eastern and southern Hainan province and eastern coast of Leizhou peninsula.
Aside from possible high waves, the typhoon has also grounded multiple flights, another Xinhua article reports: Typhoon Son-Tinh, the 23rd tropical storm this year, has disrupted 122 flights and brought downpours to south China's island province of Hainan. Eighty-eight inbound and outbound flights were canceled and 34 others delayed, affecting 4,558 passengers, said an source with the Phoenix International Airport of Sanya, a city in southern Hainan. Nearly 2,000 passengers were arranged to stay in local hotels, said the source. And airport staff were sending some of the stranded passengers by bus to the airport of Haikou, the provincial capital in the north of the island, to take other flights. Rainstorm and strong gales hit Sanya on Saturday. Local flood prevention authorities were on high alert.
Read more about natural disasters in China, via CDT.
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: flight delays, Guangxi Zhuang, Hainan, natural disasters, South China Sea, typhoon
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| “Mad Men” Reflects Modern Life in China Posted: 28 Oct 2012 10:30 AM PDT As more Hollywood firms look to Asian themes or partnerships in filmmaking due to China's rise, Chinese audiences are becoming a growing factor in the distribution of films. With the deal between Disney and YOU on Demand, television has become another arena of media distribution. The television industry has benefited from the growing exposure of American television sitcoms in China through the internet. According to the Los Angeles times, the hit-drama "Mad Men" seems to resonate with the young Chinese professionals living in a country that is undergoing major changes: Like "Mad Men's" characters, young white-collar workers in cities such as Beijing and Shanghai are often imbued with an alluring sense of living in a nation on the rise, even as they grapple with rapid and disorienting social, cultural and economic change. "Mad Men" is licensed by Lionsgate for viewing on the portal http://www.sohu.com with Chinese subtitles and is available on some Air China international flights. It is one of scores of American shows benefiting from the increasing popularity and legitimacy of Internet TV, which offers spicier fare than China's bland state-run channels and gives busy professionals the convenience of when-you-want it viewing in a nation largely devoid of on-demand programming, DVRs or TiVos. To be sure, "Mad Men" seems unlikely to ever notch the popularity of American crime shows like "Prison Break" or "CSI," which attract tens of millions of viewers here. And it's far less of a phenomenon than "Friends," which spawned a series of books with scripts from each season translated into Mandarin. (Beijing even boasts a Friends Café, modeled after the Central Perk coffee shop on the series.) Although Chinese businesses remain strongly male dominated — in the World Economic Forum's 2011 Gender Gap report, China ranked 61, way behind the U.S. (17) and Iceland (1) but ahead of Italy (74) — advertising is among the sectors in China in which women have made bigger strides. Martin Murphy, managing director of global brand management for Ogilvy & Mather's Shanghai branch, noted that his office is headed by a woman.
While the growing popularity of American sitcoms continues, China Daily reports China has become the biggest TV series producer: China has become the world's largest television series producer after making 15,000 episodes in 2011. The country is also the world's third biggest film producer, Culture Minister Cai Wu said on Wednesday. While briefing national lawmakers at a the bi-monthly session (scheduled from October 23 to 26) of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, Cai said, in 2011 China produced 15,000 television series episodes and 558 movies. It also made 260,000 minutes of animations and 4,000 hours of documentaries.
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: hollywood, media industry, Relativity Media, sohu, television
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| Liu Yuxin reveals her breathtaking cleavage at charity event Posted: 27 Oct 2012 08:16 PM PDT 
Actress Liu Yuxin took shine off maost A-list celebrities again at a star-studded charity banquet held by a fashion magazine in Beijing on Oct. 24, with her shining dress and breathtaking cleavage. The 23-years-old actress, known for her role of Gorolo Ming Yu in the hit TV drama Startling by Each Step, has been targeted by Chinese netizens for being too eager to show off her cleavage. Her last tight low-neck gown at a beauty and makeup event ever made her blue veined areola visible to the public. Netizens criticized that she squeezed her breasts so hard that the blood veins showed, but the actress defended by saying that it was photoshopped. 
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