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Blogs » Society » Chinese ambassador to UK doesn't understand what you mean by censorship |
- Chinese ambassador to UK doesn't understand what you mean by censorship
- The Anthill: What A Difference A Year Makes
- Naturalized US citizen accused of being a Triad, tortured by Guangdong police, say lawyers
- Saturday Night Musical Outro: Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker (Chinese Dance)
- Meet the 'Father Guards'
- Trousers and boxers down, say hello to the 'Toilet Seat Hotel'
- Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming On BBC Newsnight: “It Is Up To The Government To Regulate These (Internet) Users”
- China Is Building A Multiplex That’s Three Times Larger Than The Pentagon
- Xiao Liwu, San Diego Zoo’s Newest Panda, Is A Ball Of Cute
| Chinese ambassador to UK doesn't understand what you mean by censorship Posted: 22 Dec 2012 07:00 PM PST  In an interview on BBC Newsnight on December 21, Chinese ambassador Liu Xiaoming received (and dodged) a few pretty tough questions about the nation's internet censorship. (Watch the video here) Censorship has always been a touchy subject for Chinese politicians while abroad, and Liu gave his damnest to supply non-answers to Esler's questions. [ more › ]     |
| The Anthill: What A Difference A Year Makes Posted: 22 Dec 2012 04:00 PM PST This piece is republished with permission from the Anthill.
Reflections on how China has changed in two years As with dog years, so is it with China years – one here is equivalent to several most places else. They just fit more in. When it comes to pace of change, no-one else holds a candle really. I've been out of China for two years. For a dog, that's ten human years, and you could argue the rate for China is about the same. It's like leaving London shortly after the millenium and coming back for the Olympics. Recognisable, but look closer and you notice all the new things. It's the same with people. In two China years someone will have moved town three times, burned through as many businesses, got married, had a kid, got divorced and become incredibly fat. That's what I heard happened to one old friend I thought I used to know, anyway. Blessed with this time-traveller's freshness of perspective, here are my first impressions of what has changed – and what hasn't – now that I'm back in town for the long run. Merry Christmas to you all, and a happy end of the world … What's changed? 1. Yes, there are lots of new buildings Let's start with the obvious. If you go out of any Chinese city for two years, the skyline is going to look very different when you come back. There's nothing like walking down a once familiar street to drive home that China's growth rates are a physical thing, not just a percentage number. Even more striking than Beijing's new high-rises was a return trip to Xining, capital of China's Western Qinghai province. When I emerged from a newly built train station out to the west of the city, the taxi ride into the centre took me past row upon row of huge orange housing blocks, all glisteningly alike and no more than plans on a developer's table two years ago. There must have close to a hundred of them. It was, frankly, awe-inspiring. If you haven't heard of Xining now, you will have in ten years. 2. Higher prices Twelve yuan for a haircut! Four yuan for a bottle of beer! You cannot be serious! Alright, it was only eight yuan and three yuan two years ago, but there are more punishing price hikes than paying a dollar more for a bowl of noodles. An apartment in Beijing costs 50,000 RMB per square meter and rising. The price of petrol, gas, water, electricity are all going up faster than salary hikes, while taxes are as various and burdensome as ever. Unsurprisingly, when I ask "the man on the street" (yes, taxi drivers) what he thinks has changed in the last few years, this is the one he moans about first. 3. Higher expectations Along with a higher price of living come higher expectations of what to get back from your society and government. This is noticeable on a large scale – "n.i.m.b.y" or anti-corruption protests are only getting more frequent, bold and urban – and on an individual level, where a new middle class and online commentariat is versing itself in the jargon of rights and democracy with a small d. This might sound vague, because it's an impression more than an observation – especially among China's young generation, whereas their parents grew up learning only what they can give to their nation, not what their nation can give to them. 4. People are getting angrier Tempers are running higher along with skylines, prices and expectations – partly as a result of the last going largely unmet. Take the anti-Japan protests last summer, in the wake of the Diaoyu islands curfuffle. What began as nationalist outrage at Japan's gumption ended with Chinese trashing Hyundais on the street, regardless that they were driven by other Chinese. That's not focused protest, that's directionless anger finding a pressure valve. Without political representation, and with certain topics off limits, flash protest, hopeless petitioning and the ever-ubiquitous Sina Weibo are the only outlets for a population increasingly mad as hell and not going to take it any more. 5. Yunnan food is in And Sichuan food is out. Long time ago. Honestly, get with it. Yunnan food is possibly also out by the time this is published. Maybe baby cucumbers from Guangxi are hot now. Has Beijing (and presumably Shanghai) always burnt through trends this quickly? Quite possibly. Part of it is that before I was living in an "uncool" student area, and am now in the heart of the hutongs, where sports bars and wifi cafés sprout and die like snowdrops. But it's clear that China's international cities are only getting trendier and more modern, attracting foreigners – they're everywhere! – and creating ever more Chinese hipsters. What's the same? 1. The bloody internet Again to begin with one of the first things you notice having been out of the country – getting onto Facebook is still a pain in the ass. In fact, this could sit in the first category, as it's become even harder. Many of the VPNs (virtual private networks) that are the easiest way to "climb the wall" have themselves been blocked, especially during the 18th Party congress – and incoming propaganda chief Liu Qibao is talking of further tightening the noose, making a morning's procrastination a real ordeal. Still, internet control is just one symptom of the next big thing not to have changed. 2. Erm, the government By which I don't mean the Party still being in power, but that its character is unaltered. The same instinct towards suppression over candour. The same tin ear for public communication. The same bureaucratic mindset. More officials who take bribes and keep mistresses than you can count. Also the same steady, technocratic and efficient approach to improving conditions in China – albeit with certain no-go areas that might threaten the Party – against a rack of challenges. For those who think China's new leadership might bring new things, including political reform, there isn't much to base that hope on. 3. It's still all about me It might strike you that between rising public anger, the intractability of the system and new communication platforms such as Weibo, something could be brewing. Indeed, all it would take is one of those thousands of mass protests to take place in Beijing and it's suddenly a nationwide crisis. But listen to people's complaints and they are all solipsistic – unaffordable property prices/miscarriage of justice/corruption/local environmental degradation is a bad thing if it affects me, but if it doesn't why should I worry about it? 4. People still spit in the street And drop trash anywhere. And smoke inside where they're not meant to. And cut queues. And jostle others aside in a crowded bus. And bike the wrong way down the street. And drive the wrong way down the street. And (while we're here) the air pollution is just as bad. And the food can be just as unsafe. And attitudes in the countryside can be just as backwards. And life in the city can be just as merciless. I could go on. Don't be fooled by the bright lights of Shanghai's skyline – most of China is as much a messy smorgasbord of unlivability as it ever was, and will be for a while as it continues to develop. 5. But we still love it Or I do at least. China as it goes into the twenty teens feels as much a new frontier as ever. It's precisely this pace of change that makes it such an exciting place to live in and write about – which is why it attracts such a vibrant community of foreign journalists, bloggers and authors. It's a cliché, but a true one: there's a story around every corner here. And yes, the noodle soup and dumplings around the corner are as tasty as they always were. Alec Ash, a writer and freelance journalist in Beijing, is the founder of the Anthill. His previous piece that appeared on Beijing Cream was "A Thangka of Blood," about Tibet. |
| Naturalized US citizen accused of being a Triad, tortured by Guangdong police, say lawyers Posted: 22 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST The Daily Beast has this strange tale of a Chinese American businessman who found himself arrested by police in Guangdong province on (trumped-up? fake?) charges of being a Triad member:
Torture follows. And why can't the US Consulate do a single thing to help this American citizen?
Go give the article a read and see if you don't also come away with more questions than answers. U.S. Businessman's Chinese Legal Nightmare Includes Torture, Lawyers Say (The Daily Beast) |
| Saturday Night Musical Outro: Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker (Chinese Dance) Posted: 22 Dec 2012 07:59 AM PST Don't look now, but Christmas is Tuesday. As if you needed a reminder, here it is. Have an excellent one. |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 07:59 AM PST        |
| Trousers and boxers down, say hello to the 'Toilet Seat Hotel' Posted: 22 Dec 2012 06:03 AM PST A recently built 7-star hotel has been nicknamed the 'Toilet Seat Hotel' (马桶盖酒店) by netizens. The building is in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province and is officially called the 'Arch of the Orient'. Costing nearly 100 million yuan to build, architect Ma Yanhui must have agonised long and hard over the intricacies of its design, only for the building to become known purely for its likeness to a toilet seat. It joins a long list of amusingly nicknamed, newly built Chinese buildings, foremost among them the 'Big Boxer Shorts' (大裤衩) CCTV building in Beijing and Suzhou's 'Big Trousers/Pants' (大裤子）Gate of the Orient building. [ more › ] |
| Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:25 AM PST
Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, went on BBC's Newsnight yesterday to speak with presenter Gavin Esler (video in link). They discussed several issues — China will double per capita income of the people in 10 years, Diaoyu islands have belonged to to China "since centuries," "it is up to the Syrian people to decide who will be their leaders," etc. — but going along with recent themes, here's their exchange on corruption and Internet censorship: Liu: I think corruption is not a problem for China alone. Once you are in the period of social transformation, it's unavoidable you'll have all kinds of problems. Just like Deng Xiaoping once said at the beginning of opening up of China, he said, "When we open the window we'll let in the fresh air, it's unavoidable that flies and mosquitoes will be in." But the important thing is how the party face up to it and adopt measures to deal with this problem. I think the leadership is resolute and determined. Esler: Do you see things like the Internet as being like flies and mosquitoes? Do you see it as a bit of an irritation, because again, from our side, we don't understand what you're worried about when you want to control how people exchange information. Liu: I think there's a misperception about Internet development in China. In fact, the Chinese are much open in terms of Internet. In fact we have the most numbers of users in China today. Esler: But our correspondent couldn't even get on Facebook when he was in China. I mean, you can't get on Twitter. It's not quite as you present it. Liu: In China, every day, there are hundreds of thousands of comments made by the bloggers, and 66 percent of Chinese Internet users make comments online. You know, it is up to the government to regulate these users, also in protection of the safety of the Internet to ensure that healthy content available and unhealthy content should be removed. Esler: But isn't that really up to ordinary people to decide? Looking at the history of your country, you've had thousands of years of creativity, and we see creativity as based on the free exchange of information. And part of the reasons why people in the West think you're cracking down and being very hard on bloggers is it's very diffuct to do for some people becasue you don't like certain ideas. Liu: If you are in China and can get connected in Internet, I think you can get all kinds of opinions, it's much open. Lot of things can be debated, including politics, economics, cultural affairs. I think you have to have a big picture of development of the Internet back in China." Chinese Ambassador on China's internet policy (video) (BBC) |
| China Is Building A Multiplex That’s Three Times Larger Than The Pentagon Posted: 21 Dec 2012 10:16 PM PST
There's big, and then there's China big. (Sorry, Texas – you're not in the ballpark.) In Chengdu, construction has begun on a multiplex featuring hotels, apartments, offices, an IMAX cinema, skating rink, pirate ship, "Mediterranean village," artificial beach, undulating roof…
More:
China is realizing the dream of Martin Dressler, the title character of Steven Millhauser's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Notably, the subtitle of that book — set in early 20th century New York — is The Tale of an American Dreamer. Alas, it's from China these days that we're seeing quotes such as, "This is an ocean city built by man." China Is Building A Structure 20 Times Bigger Than The Sydney Opera House (AFP via Business Insider, h/t Alicia) |
| Xiao Liwu, San Diego Zoo’s Newest Panda, Is A Ball Of Cute Posted: 21 Dec 2012 09:07 PM PST Xiao Liwu, i.e. "Little Gift," was born on July 29 as "Sausage" (which is pretty adorable) before folks voted to change his name. Here he is getting a vet exam at his home in the San Diego Zoo. Follow him on his Panda Cam if you can stand it. Are You Kidding Me With How Adorable This Baby Panda Is? Because It's No Joke (Gawker) via Daily Picks and Flicks, which brings us this picture:
(H/T Alicia) |
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