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• Three Self-Immolations Amid Crackdown, Debate
• Why Weibo Needs to Win the War with WeChat
• Comparing Asia’s Giants on Rape
• Why China is Sitting on Fashion’s Front Row
• Open Letter Calls for Ratification of Human Rights Covenant

Three Self-Immolations Amid Crackdown, Debate Posted: 26 Feb 2013 02:49 PM PST Three Tibetan self-immolations have taken place in recent days, according to exile media, amid vigorous discussion of the protests and a continued crackdown by Chinese authorities. From Dharamsala-based Phayul.com: Tsezung Kyab, 27, torched himself in front of the main prayer hall of the Shitsang Monastery in Luchu region of eastern Tibet at around 1:30 pm (local time). He passed away at his protest site, the same place where his cousin Pema Dorjee, 23, passed away in his self-immolation protest on December 8, 2012. […] This is the second self-immolation protest in Tibet in as many days. [On Sunday], Phagmo Dhondup, a Tibetan in his 20's set himself ablaze near the Jhakhyung Monastery in Palung region of eastern Tibet. His condition and whereabouts are not known. On Tuesday, news emerged of another case on Monday, in Ngaba. From Phayul: Sangdag, a monk of the Dhiphu Monastery, set himself ablaze on a main road in Ngaba district at around 10 am (local time). According to the exile base of Kirti Monastery in Dharamshala, Sangdag's present condition is unknown. "Soon after Sangdag carried out his fiery protest, Chinese security personnel arrived at the scene and doused the flames on his body," Kirti Monastery said in a release today. "He was taken a hospital in Ngaba but shortly after that the Chinese police bundled him away to another place." These protests brought the total number of Tibetan self-immolations within China to 107 since the start of 2009. Six other cases have occurred in India and Nepal, while two further incidents in Sichuan province are disputed on the grounds that they may have been accidental. The International Campaign for Tibet publishes perhaps the clearest and most comprehensive list of Tibetan self-immolations, though at time of writing it has not yet been updated to include Sangdag's. On NPR's All Things Considered, Louisa Lim described the difficulties of gaining access to many Tibetan areas: Visiting Tibetan areas nowadays is a risky venture. There is nothing in the Chinese regulations explicitly forbidding journalists, but the unspoken dangers deter many. One colleague told me it wasn't worth bothering; the monasteries are full of spies, he said, you won't get anything anyway. Many have tried, nonetheless, hiding in the back of vans, under piles of clothes, in questionable disguises. If you do get caught, you might get detained and questioned, but eventually you'll get sent home. At worst, you might get beaten up. The dangers are far worse for those who help us and talk to us. Another report from Phayul last week illustrated the risks faced by anyone suspected of sharing information about the protests. A 20 year Tibetan old man was reportedly sentenced to two years in prison after two photographs of self-immolations were found on his phone, along with other images: "He was apprehended by Chinese security personnel during a routine check near the city mosque," the release cited a Tibetan source as saying. "Upon checking his mobile phone, the Chinese police found two photos of self-immolation protests, images of Tibetan national flag, and other photos showing Chinese atrocities on Tibetans." The release added that he was kept in various prisons for over a week during which he was constantly interrogated. Topden was later sentenced to two years in prison on charges of being a "reactionary, inciting the public, and threatening social stability." He is currently being kept in a prison in Toelung region. […] In December last, four Tibetans were arrested in Rebkong region of eastern Tibet on similar charges of storing "reactionary" materials in the phone after they were found keeping photos of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in their phones. This is just the latest in a string of sentences passed on people accused of involvement in the protests. The crackdown is also said to have included confiscation of TV equipment, restrictions on travel, withdrawal of government benefits from families of self-immolators, and beatings and arrests. Over the longer term, China has attempted to secure its rule over Tibetan areas with economic development. Xinhua's China View reported the official removal of 130,000 people from poverty in the Tibetan Autonomous Region last year, pointing to long-distance trucking as a key driver of prosperity: At The New York Times' Latitude blog, Clarissa Sebag-Montefiore acknowledged that Tibet has seen some material gains. But the settlement of nomadic herders has been a core policy to "raise living standards", and this, she writes, has left many with government stipends and alcohol in place of traditional livelihoods and communities. The Chinese government has […] undermined Tibetan nomads' claim to land by ordering the fencing of private pastures and resettling populations, often forcibly. Since that campaign started in the 1990s — accelerating over the last decade — more than one million Tibetan herders across the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Tibetan-populated regions of western China have been resettled. According to the state-run China Daily, the government spent almost $550 million from 2009 to 2012 on the resettlement of Tibetan nomads in Qinghai. Herders have traded their livestock and their lifestyle for a small annual stipend. They often relocate to compounds in town — like the colorful ones I saw — where local officials can monitor their activities more easily. "People who live in these houses look at it like a jail," one young Tibetan told me. "The community is gone." What's left of it is being turned into a social underclass. Many older Tibetan nomads are illiterate, and aside from irregular construction work there is little they can find to support themselves once their stipend runs out. Those who cannot speak Chinese complain of being treated with contempt; they say shopkeepers of ethnic Han origin order them not to touch produce. NPR's Talk of the Nation (via CDT) recently hosted a discussion of past and present self-immolations with Columbia University's Robert Barnett, Oxford University's Michael Biggs and the International Campaign for Tibet's Bhuchung Tsering. A blog post translated at High Peaks Pure Earth, on the other hand, offers a glimpse of the ongoing debate on the Tibetan web. Its author, Naktsang Nulo, dismisses the accusation that any but the youngest and most impressionable self-immolators could have been fooled into committing such an act, but implores others not to follow their lead and urges the Dalai Lama to issue a similar appeal. What I want to state and request again and again from my heart and mind with deep sadness is that no matter what savage and brutal rule you may have to endure, please do not resort to self-immolation. You may come up with any other methods of resistance and struggle, but please do not set yourself on fire. I want to request again that no matter how pure your aims and hopes are, please do not resort to self-immolation. […] There are many ways to fight for freedom, to fulfill one's aspirations and to struggle against the government. At a time when there is a so-called good leadership of the Communist Party, good governance from the administration, good economic development and good livelihood for the people, it seems that an individual, a group of people or a nationality can demand rights from the government, regional authorities or even the Communist Party by submitting appeals and through legal channels. It appears that one may not necessarily have to resort to self-immolation. Perhaps these are just the words of someone like me who does not know much. But what I want to request again is that no matter what savage and brutal rule you may have to endure, please do not set yourself on fire. Whatever methods of struggle and resistance one must adopt, do not resort to self-immolation. No matter how pure and incomparable your hopes and faiths are please do not set yourself on fire. I particularly want to request our root guru, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to pray for the sea of suffering in Tibet and kindly make a statement to ask the brave Tibetans not to self-immolate. In an iSunAffairs Weekly article translated and republished at Phayul, New York-based political science professor Ming Xia examined the question of whether such a call would be effective or desirable. Xia's primary focus, however, was the lack of support for Tibetans among Han intellectuals in China, which Andrew Jacobs also examined at The New York Times in November. The two groups face shared obstacles, Xia argued, but many Chinese fail to recognize this because of state propaganda or revulsion at the act of self-immolation viewed from a non-Buddhist perspective. First as intellectuals living in the free world, we must be aware of the fact that the Chinese intellectuals and Tibetans are victims of the same authoritarian rule and that they are both facing a profound identity crisis. It raises a fundamental question for Tibetans, which is whether Tibetans would continue to be Tibetans if there were no Buddhism. And as for the Chinese intellectuals, the question is whether they would still be "intellectuals" if they do not have the right to free and independent thinking and the right to pursue truth. Since the two challenges are closely interlinked, it is therefore incumbent upon the Chinese intellectuals to pay close attention and support the demand of the Tibetan people. […] No doubt, resorting to self-immolation is not a good option. Tibetans today, however, do not have the luxury to choose between "good" and "bad". Tibetans can only chose between "bad" and "worse." Losing their religious faith is worse than self-immolation for Tibetans. The Chinese Communist regime wantonly insult the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, ban his portrait to be hung in the temples, expel the monks devoted to the Dalai Lama from their monasteries, establish "Temple Management Authority" and "Work Units" in the monasteries, and send millions of copies of the so-called "four leaders" (Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, and Hu Jintao) to the temples. All of this represents a serious threat to the religious freedom of the Tibetan people. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Dalai Lama, economic development, intellectuals, journalists conditions, Kirti monastery, ngaba, nomads, poverty, poverty alleviation, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibetan protests Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Why Weibo Needs to Win the War with WeChat Posted: 26 Feb 2013 02:45 PM PST At Tech in Asia, Charles Custer surveys the stakes in the brewing battle between between Sina Weibo and Tencent's Weixin (or WeChat). Weibo, he argues, has repeatedly helped local social and environmental issues coalesce into nationwide movements, a trend that the rise of Weixin threatens to unravel. Five years ago, for example, you might think that the pollution of a local river was just a problem with a nearby factory, but thanks to Deng Fei's weibo campaign and others, it's easy to see on Weibo that many rivers nationwide have similar problems. So, what you previously considered a local problem is now a national one, and when that happens, you're more likely to try to push for national changes instead of just complaining about your local authorities. […] That's why Weibo's fight with WeChat is so crucial. WeChat is a totally different service with a very different focus, but the more time users spend on WeChat, the less they're spending on Weibo. And while chatting with your friends and following celebrities is fun, the service just isn't designed for the swift passing-along of information the way that weibo is. WeChat's focus is your circle of friends and your local area, Weibo's focus is far wider. To return to our polluted river analogy, on Weibo you share your photos of the river with your followers all over the country, and they pass it on to theirs; quickly, it can go national. But on WeChat, you bitch with your friends and coworkers about the river and it stays in your (mostly) local social circles. Even if it does spread, that spread isn't easily visible or trackable, which makes it seem like fewer people are talking about it and thus reduces its impact. While Sina Weibo currently has 500 million registered users to Weixin's 300 million, its lead may be less substantial than it appears. Also at Tech in Asia, Steven Millward suggested last week that as many as 95% of all Sina Weibo accounts may be either "zombies" or spammers, and Weixin is likely to reach the half-billion mark within the next twelve months. Whether or not Weixin encourages a narrowly local focus among users, Tencent has global ambitions for the service. Its largest user bases abroad are currently in Malaysia and India, but the company appears intent on conquering America as a springboard to world domination. From Fang Yunyu at Global Times: "We are planning to set up our WeChat office in the US, in a bid to explore opportunities in the US market," Tencent Holdings said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times. […] "If a foreign product can succeed in the US market, where many excellent IT products and companies were born, it will be relatively easy for the product to go into other markets," Tencent noted. […] Tencent announced last month that the total number of WeChat users had reached 300 million, including over 10 million overseas users, about two years after the Shenzhen-based company launched the mobile application. "The figure may exceed 500 million by the end of this year, which will be equivalent to the number of Internet users in the country. In other words, it means the domestic WeChat market will very soon be saturated," Fang Xingdong, founder of the Beijing-based industry consultancy Internet Laboratory, told the Global Times Monday. International users may be deterred, however, by reports of Weixin actively assisting Chinese authorities with surveillance of political dissidents and censorship even of users outside China. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: India, Malaysia, river pollution, sina, sina weibo, social networking, tencent, United States, Weixin Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Comparing Asia’s Giants on Rape Posted: 26 Feb 2013 01:54 PM PST Didi Kirsten Tatlow at The New York Times has compared China and India in terms of rape. China and India are often compared as they are both 'Asia's giants,' with over a billion people each, and are experiencing fast-paced economic growth: In both countries recently, highly publicized gang rapes have dramatically raised public awareness of a hidden problem. Of course, rape is to some extent a hidden issue everywhere, even in societies with efficient legal systems and liberal attitudes toward women. But in China and India, as in other places where traditional notions may judge a raped woman as "ruined," there are especially powerful disincentives to reporting the crime, experts say. Here are the painful stories. On Dec. 16, a 23-year-old student was gang-raped on a bus in New Delhi, the Indian capital, dying of her injuries two weeks later. Few believe that's the full extent of it, but the Chinese conviction figure is apparently higher than India's. Women in China also experience far less sexual harassment in public, or "Eve teasing," as it's known in India. Privately, researchers confide they have no idea what the real number of rapes is. Some estimate that less than one in 10 cases is reported. That might make at least a quarter of a million a year in China, but probably far more. In the United States, with less than a quarter of China's population, Census Bureau figures show a fairly consistent rate of "forcible rape" (excluding statutory rape) of just over 80,000 a year over the last decade. CDT previously reported on the detention of Li Guanfeng, son of People's Liberation Army General and renowned singer, Li Shuangjiang, for his alleged involvement in a gang rape case. In response to this case, the Global Times published two commentaries: Freelance columnist Lian Peng claims there needs to be a fundamental cure for society by strengthening the law, while Xiao Baiyou,  "Wolf Dad," says parents need to be stricter with their children. Lian Peng says: On the one hand, the case mirrors social hatred toward officials and the rich. These deeply rooted social conflicts are worth pondering. There are too many cases in which the privileged are seen to fly above the law. People worry that if they do not strongly condemn this action, Li Tianyi might receive a lighter sentence or even escape legal punishment altogether. If social order and justice are not done and crimes are not punished, the psychology of the people will be gradually distorted and social conflicts and hatred will spread. But the very first step is to practically restore the dignity of the law. Under this circumstance, a spirit of social tolerance, sympathy and understanding can return. While Xiao Baiyou comments on parents' responsibility: This largely relates to poor family education. Because of unreasonable parental discipline, they go astray. Some among these groups despise the law, because they believe they are privileged and can easily escape from legal punishment. I can responsibly say that if I was allowed to teach Li Tianyi from today on, I would return the Li couple a well-disciplined son who would have learned from his crimes. Read more about China-India comparisons, via CDT. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: India, India comparison, li shuangjiang, li tianyi, rape Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Why China is Sitting on Fashion’s Front Row Posted: 26 Feb 2013 01:32 PM PST Despite claims that Chinese fashion brands are struggling in the market compared to foreign luxury brands,  CNN reports Chinese designers are on the rise in the style capitals of the world, such as Paris and London. China accounts for more than a quarter of the global luxury market, with men accounting for more than half of the spending on luxury goods in China: One of those hoping to show that the flow of sartorial capital not only goes from West to East, but also vice versa, is Haizhen Wang. Originally from Dalian in northeast China, he trained at Central Saint Martins in London, graduating in 2005. Wang then came to the attention of the fashion world last year after winning the Fashion Fringe Award for young designers and was mentored by Burberry's chief creative officer, Christopher Bailey. Like many of the emerging Chinese-born, Western-educated generation of designers, the influence of Wang's home culture on his work is subtle. While his collection was inspired mainly by gothic architecture, Wang says his Chinese roots underlie everything he produces. "Even if you can't see any obvious Oriental influences, like dragons for example, across my pieces, the man who made this collection — me — is Chinese and that will always be there, even though I was trained in the West." Tom Ford, the designer and film director whose name is almost synonymous with luxury and style, says he is closely watching how Chinese consumers are maturing. Ford observes that — as in other emerging markets — China is moving away from the initial lust for designer logos that tends to characterise the newly rich. "Tastes become quite refined and equalized with the rest of the luxury consumer all over the world … I think that's really starting to happen in China and it's moving very quickly." See also China's Street Fashion, an article profiling the Chinese street fashion brand, Eno, via CDT. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: fashion, fashion industry, luxury brands, luxury goods Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Open Letter Calls for Ratification of Human Rights Covenant Posted: 26 Feb 2013 09:27 AM PST Ahead of the National People's Congress annual session next month, during which Xi Jinping is expected to take over as state president, a group of 100 prominent intellectuals, journalists, and lawyers have penned an open letter calling on the NPC to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ICCPR is one of the key documents making up the United Nations' international bill of human rights, and signatories who ratify it commit to protecting basic political rights including right to life, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, right to due process and a fair trial, and electoral rights. The full text of the covenant can be found here. China signed the covenant on October 5, 1998. Upon ratification, the Chinese government would be obligated to reform domestic law to ensure the enforcement of the rights named in the covenant. From the China Media Project: The language of the open letter is reasoned and constructive, outlining China's past achievements on human rights, including the Chinese Communist Party's early pledge to "fight for human rights and freedom." We understand from inside sources that this letter was originally intended for a Thursday release through a prominent Chinese newspaper. Authorities, however, learned of the letter by late Monday and the authors had no choice but to release it to the public today. Current signers of the letter include prominent legal scholar He Weifang (贺卫方), economist Mao Yushi (茅于轼), activist and scholar Ran Yunfei (冉云飞), well-known lawyers Pu Zhiqiang (浦志强) and Xu Zhiyong (许志永), investigative reporter Wang Keqin (王克勤), author Wang Lixiong (王力雄) and many, many others. This is a laundry list of some of China's most prominent and influential pro-reform figures. And from CMP's draft translation of the letter: As a Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council, China has always been an active initiator and participant in the International Bill of Human Rights. China's government played an important role in the formulation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). International human rights standards are therefore not imported products but in fact include the achievements of Chinese culture and the Chinese people. The signing of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 15 years ago demonstrated even more our country's serious commitment to the protection of basic human rights as a responsible world power. Afterwards, both President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao said openly on numerous occasions both at home and overseas that China would immediately take the legal steps to ratify the treaty once the conditions were right. In the beginning of 2008, more than 10,000 Chinese citizens signed a call for the ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. And so there is no longer any need to vacillate. In order to adapt to trends in human rights development, live up to our government's pledges and answer the demands of the people, in order to behave in a manner consistent with a major power, we must join the treaty without hesitation, with a positive and decisive attitude. We will post a link to CMP's full translation once it become available. This is not the first time activists and lawyers in China have called on the government to ratify the ICCPR and the government itself has announced plans for ratification. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: He Weifang, human rights activists, human rights policy, ICCPR, pu zhiqiang, Ran Yunfei, U.N. human rights, United Nations, Wang Keqin, Wang Lixiong, Xu Zhiyong Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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