| CCTV Pre-Execution Spectacle Polarizes Viewers Posted: 01 Mar 2013 05:50 PM PST Drug lord Naw Kham and three other foreigners were executed in Kunming on Friday for the 2011 killings of 13 Chinese sailors on the Mekong River. State broadcaster CCTV aired the prisoners' final hours, together with segments on their crimes and the ensuing manhunt, as a showcase of tough justice, but some saw instead a sinister and possibly illegal echo of the Mao era. From Jonathan Kaiman at The Guardian: Naw Kham's wry smile belied his macabre circumstances. "I haven't been able to sleep for two days. I have been thinking too much. I miss my mum. I don't want my children to be like me," the 44-year-old Burmese druglord, chained to a chair, told a Chinese TV interviewer. On Friday – two days after the interview – the Burmese freshwater pirate was executed for allegedly murdering a crew of Chinese sailors on the Mekong river in October, 2011. His last moments were aired on state television. In the two-hour live broadcast, black-clad police officers hauled Naw Kham from a detention centre in southern China, bound him with ropes and chains, and bundled him on to a bus bound for the execution site. Three of his alleged henchmen followed in similar fashion. They were each killed – off camera – by lethal injection. Though a rumored live broadcast of the actual executions failed to materialize, the TV coverage attracted heavy criticism. "It's hard to see how that spectacle doesn't violate [the] prohibition on parading condemned in the streets," tweeted human rights researcher Joshua Rosenzweig, referring to a 1984 ban introduced to avoid unfavorable foreign media coverage. Human Rights Watch's Nicholas Bequelin commented that China had "just wiped away any perception that it was making progress on the death penalty issue." Within China, reactions to the broadcast were deeply polarized. From Andrew Jacobs at The New York Times: "Rather than showcasing rule of law, the program displayed state control over human life in a manner designed to attract gawkers," Han Youyi, a criminal law professor, wrote via microblog. "State-administered violence is no loftier than criminal violence." […] In one segment, Liu Yuejin, director general of the central government's Narcotics Control Bureau, cast the executions as a pivotal moment for a newly confident China and for ethnic Chinese across the globe. "In the past, overseas Chinese dared not say they were of Chinese origin," said Mr. Liu, who led the task force that spent six months hunting the culprits. "Now they can hold their heads high and be themselves." Supporters of the program were many, and enthusiastic. One blogger suggested that death by lethal injection was too lenient, adding "These beasts should be pulled apart by vehicles." Some critics said the broadcast, and the subsequent public gloating, displayed an ugly side of China and would hurt its image abroad. To Murong Xuecun, a well-known Chinese author, the program revealed a national psyche, fed by decades of Communist Party propaganda, that craves vengeance for the years of humiliation by foreigners. "It proves that hatred-education still has a market in China," he said in an interview. At Bloomberg World View, Adam Minter described the spectacle as a "graphic extension" of a broader political strategy: […] Over the last two years the Chinese government has found itself embroiled in increasingly dangerous sovereignty disputes with its Southeast Asian and Japanese neighbors. So far, diplomacy has been the preferred course of action. Yet on China's decidedly nationalistic and highly influential microblogging platforms, diplomacy — especially on sovereignty issues — is unpopular and viewed as a sign of weakness. In response, the Chinese government and its official media tribunals have carefully ratcheted up the aggressive rhetoric, especially toward Japan, since the fall of 2012, reminding Chinese that they will not be bullied by outside forces. Rather, if there will be any bullying, China will be doing it. A 2012 Reuters investigation into the Mekong murders described the web of trafficking in drugs, humans and endangered animals in Southeast Asia's "Golden Triangle", and Naw Kham's legendary or perhaps mythical place in it. The report also highlighted the possible involvement of an elite Thai anti-drugs unit in the killings. China's Global Times recently revealed that authorities had considered killing Naw Kham with a drone strike instead of capturing him. See more on China's drone programs, and more on the death penalty in China, via CDT.
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Post tags: CCTV, death penalty, diplomacy, drug trafficking, execution, Golden Triangle, human rights watch, Japan, legal system, Mao era, Mekong river, murders, Murong Xuecun, Myanmar, Southeast Asia, territorial disputes, thailand
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| Drawing the News: Threats Abroad and at Home Posted: 01 Mar 2013 05:45 PM PST Unruly neighbors, polluted air, and politics as usual have China hemmed in and on the defensive.  (Ah Ping/iSun Affairs) Since North Korea's February 12 nuclear test, many Chinese citizens have soured on the pariah state. Even the Chinese government is losing patience, although domestically it downplayed the risk of radiation from its neighbor. Food aid isn't isn't enough to placate Kim Jong-un–he claims there will be two more weapons tests this year.  (Dashix) Radiation fears aside, one of the biggest threats facing ordinary Chinese citizens is home-grown. Beijing was smothered by dust and smog this week, once again raising the specter of PM2.5–particulate matter under 2.5 micrometers in diameter, small enough to penetrate into the lungs. As the country discusses and dissects the public health implications of PM2.5, a few people are bailing for clearer skies. For the masses who stay behind, the government has decided to address the issue of the term "PM2.5," plucked directly from the English. Netizens had some tongue-in-cheek suggestions for the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies, which is now in the process of creating a suitable Chinese word for PM2.5. Cartoonist Little Spear muses on the front runner in the name race, "fine particulate matter" (细颗粒物):  (Little Spear) When I found out the bricksperts were renaming PM2.5 "fine particulate matter"… …it hit me! In a flash, I saw it… "particulates" This suggests to the public that PM2.5 is… Safe! Thin! Comfortable! And also edible… When I realized this, the well-intentioned diligence of the bricksperts… …moved me to tears!  (Badiucao) The Year of the Snake is in full swing, school has started again, and the "Two Sessions" are about to begin. In overseas artist Badiucao's imagination, the red scarf of the Young Pioneer offers no protection from the perils that lay ahead: the Communist Party has not upheld the human rights it has committed to on paper. On Tuesday, 100 people signed an open letter to the National People's Congress calling for ratification of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. China is a signatory, but that hasn't done much to protect freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and other basic rights enumerated in the document. Once again, the real menaces to ordinary Chinese citizens are within the country's borders.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, Drawing the News, North Korea, North Korea nuclear, North Korean relations, PM2.5, political cartoons, political humor, pollution
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| Second Round of “Super Ministries” Reform Ahead Posted: 01 Mar 2013 05:44 PM PST Caijing reports on a draft plan to merge the Ministry of Railways into a larger "super-ministry": Caijing learned in late February that the draft plan for a new round of "super ministries" reform will be discussed during the upcoming second plenary meeting of the 18th CPC Central Committee, putting "super ministries" on China's reform agenda once again after five years of exploration and debate. Super ministries reform features consolidating government agencies with similar functions to reduce administrative overlapping and promote efficiency. [...]Under the plan, the Railways Ministry will be merged with the Ministry of Transport, in a move which has won popular support. In addition, food and drug safety authorities will be integrated into a regulator dedicated to market supervision; and the powers of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Oceanic Administration will be expanded. However, consolidation of government agencies in the energy, cultural, and financial sectors, as well as the formation of a national organization which coordinates reforms in different sectors, though widely anticipated, have not been included in the plan. The draft plan, though basically completed, may be subject to changes before being put on the table of the central leadership, said an expert who participated in drawing up the plan. The version that comes out after the second plenary meeting of the 18th CPC Central Committee is expected to be final, said the expert.
Recently, a far-reaching web of corruption was discovered in the Ministry of Railways. In the beginnings of China's "reform and opening up" era, attempts to streamline bureaucracy by merging public ministries were taken in effort to increase government efficiency. AP covers the recent closed-door meeting where new rounds of bureaucratic mergers were discussed, provides an overview of the first round three decades ago, and touches on the controversial nature of this practice: In 1982, the number of Cabinet-level ministries and commissions was slashed from 100 to 61. In the 1990s, museum pieces such as the Ministry of Machine Building that were no longer needed to set prices and tell companies what to produce were eliminated. In 1998, then-Premier Zhu Rongji shrank the number of ministries further from 40 to 29. At the same time, Beijing created Western-style regulators for banks and securities. A Ministry of Commerce was formed in 2003 to bring together trade and planning agencies, simplifying some trade regulation to make it easier for private sector traders to function. Such change can provoke furious opposition. In the last round of proposed reforms in 2008, the only thing leaders finally agreed on was to make the environmental regulator a full-fledged ministry in response to an avalanche of pollution scandals. Creating fewer, bigger ministries would fit with party pledges to make the economy more productive and keep incomes growing. Xi has called for a "renewal of the Chinese nation," raising hopes a new leader whose attitude toward reform is still unclear might throw his political weight behind remaking the government.[...]
Also see "Government Reform: Super-Size Me," via CDT.
© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: ministries reorganization, Ministry of Railways, super-ministries
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| What to Expect at the 12th National People’s Congress Posted: 01 Mar 2013 04:59 PM PST The annual meeting of China's National People's Congress – the rubber-stamp legislature that is, in theory at least, the head of the Chinese state – is set to commence on March 5 at Beijing's Great Hall of the People. At this year's meeting, we will see the ongoing decennial leadership transition come to its completion with the official "election" of China's head of state (President) and head of government (Premier of the State Council). As has been tradition since 1993, newly appointed party positions have already determined that CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping will take over the presidency, while the premiership will go to the second ranked member of the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, Li Keqiang. The upcoming NPC meeting will give the newly empowered Xi-Li duo a chance to reveal their objectives and new administration. Since being granted their power at the 18th Party Congress in November of last year, pledges have been made to crackdown on corruption and limit extravagance in the party, curb the nation's massive pollution problem through green energy policies, and deepen economic reform. A piece from Bloomberg Businessweek comprehensively outlines what is to be expected at the NPC, noting that the nation Xi and Li inherit is much different than it was when Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao convened the 10th NPC as new leaders a decade ago: As they try to deliver on [their] promises, Xi and Li face an unprecedented level of public scrutiny, with China's online community expanding more than eight-fold since their predecessors took power 10 years ago. At stake is their ability to maintain the ruling Communist Party's legitimacy as it adjusts to slower economic growth after an average of 10.5 percent expansion over the past decade. "Xi and Li take over a nation characterized by far more large-scale corruption, inequality of wealth and environmental degradation than was the case a decade ago," said Kenneth Lieberthal, director of the Brookings Institution's John L. Thornton China Center. "The population is now demanding that the government treat it with greater respect." [...]China's citizens have used the Internet to increasingly express discontent over issues from pollution to graft to income disparities. China added 51 million web users last year to bring the total to 564 million, underscoring the challenge faced by Xi and Li in ensuring the government's message remains dominant.
As the party holds supreme power in the PRC, real policy decisions are usually made at plenary meetings of the CCP's central committee, while the NPC (with help from the mass media) has acted more as a mechanism to guide public opinion. However, Brookings scholar Cheng Li thinks that the upcoming NPC will have more policy implications than in the past. Wall Street Journal reports: First, there is a sense of urgency on the part of Mr. Xi to lift public confidence by initiating major policy changes, especially to please the middle class and to do so now rather than waiting another seven months. Second, Mr. Xi is now in his "honeymoon period," and he should cash in his political capital to carry out new policies promptly. Third, in contrast to the previous 10 years when there was often policy deadlock resulting from the factional infighting of the top leadership, Mr. Xi now has a six-to-one concentration of power in the Politburo Standing Committee — a great advantage that should allow him to do substantive things . And fourth, Li Keqiang is under tremendous pressure to demonstrate his leadership ability. Evidence seems to suggest Messrs. Xi and Li understand very well their need to support each other. Their different policy preferences can also complement each other, resonating well in different sectors and with different classes throughout the country.
In the lead-up to the NPC, there have been attempts to urge leaders into addressing sensitive topics at the NPC. Deutsche-Welle reports on an open letter calling for China to ratify a UN human rights treaty; and Channel News Asia notes that, after much public discussion and media coverage, the controversial re-education through labor system may be discussed. For more on the soon-to-be-complete leadership transition, see Patrick Chovanec's perpetually helpful primer, which includes an overview of the separation of powers in China.
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Post tags: leadership transition, Li Keqiang, National People's Congress, NPC, NPC 2013, two sessions, Xi Jinping
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| Photo: Bama Rains, by Michael Steverson Posted: 01 Mar 2013 02:23 PM PST |
| Social Change and its Impact on the Role of Law Posted: 01 Mar 2013 01:37 PM PST Incoming president Xi Jinping has pledged to uphold the constitution and rule of law in China. But, as Stanley Lubman points out in a post on the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time, this is a complicated prospect given China's current social and political situation. He describes new regulations implemented in Chinese cities that govern the behavior of pet owners and mandate that grown children visit their parents "often": These and other recent legal developments – including a pair of domestic violence cases with wildly different outcomes – illustrate how unprecedented social changes in China are provoking new questions about the role of law in society, and creating problems for law-makers, citizens and courts alike. [...] Litigation sometimes reflects pressures to meet social change, as shown by two recent cases involving violence against women that challenges a long-standing acceptance of domestic abuse. In one case, Kim Lee, the American wife of a well-known Chinese English teacher, was granted a divorce by a Chinese court on the grounds of domestic violence. The court also issued a three-month restraining order against the husband that was described in Chinese media as "unprecedented." Ms. Lee brought the case to court despite police attempts to discourage her. As one commentary published on the website of The Atlantic noted, "[F]or many in China, especially in rural areas, physical violence in the home is an accepted part of a marital relationship." Ms. Lee posted photos of her injuries on the Internet and succeeded in her divorce suit. The case provoked a nation-wide debate about domestic violence. By the time it was decided, it had generated more than three million comments on Sina Weibo. Another example of social problems intersecting with law is the even more serious case of Li Yan, a woman in southwestern China's Sichuan province who killed her husband after suffering years of abuse and violence. Despite a large amount of evidence documenting her ordeals, the court ruled that she had not adequately proven domestic violence and sentenced her to death. The case has gone to the Supreme People's Court, which has not yet ruled on whether her execution should be carried out. All of the cases discussed here are examples of shifts in social values that demonstrate the complex interactions between law and social change. The Shenzhen law suggests limits on the influence of legal rules on citizens' behavior. The new legal provisions imposing a duty, however vague, on adult children to care for their elderly parents illustrate a legislative intent to influence intergenerational attitudes whose traditional content have been eroded by economic change. And the issue of domestic violence reflects social pressures for new laws to protect wives from violent husbands, while also raising doubt about the extent to which such laws would actually protect them.
Lubman concludes that these new efforts to legislate behavior demonstrate that "Chinese society is racing headlong into a new era and grasping for new rules as it goes."
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: legal reform, legislation, rule of law, social reform
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| Veteran Muckraker Wang Keqin Forced to Leave Paper Posted: 01 Mar 2013 10:45 AM PST Celebrated investigative journalist Wang Keqin has been forced to leave the Economic Observer, apparently in connection with its unrestrained coverage of flooding which killed at least 77 people in Beijing last summer and other investigative reports. From David Bandurski at China Media Project: A former CMP fellow, Wang is China's best-known investigative reporter. Over the past decade he has tackled scores of sensitive stories, from systematic corruption in China's taxi industry to the spread of HIV-AIDS through careless and unnecessary blood transfusions. He was forced out of his previous newspaper, the China Economic Times, in 2011 after a spate of hard-hitting reports, including a 2010 expose about the mishandling of tainted vaccines in Shanxi province. […] In a post made to Sina Weibo yesterday, Wang Keqin shared details with his more than 400,000 followers about the clearing out of his desk at the Economic Observer the day before: Yesterday I cleared out of the @EconomicObserver. These are the petitioning materials I received over a period of ten years at the China Economic Times, two tons of them. For other people these might just be waste paper; for me, they represent the trust and hope the people place in me. The things stacked here are misery, blood and tears, but I've always seen them as treasures. They go with me wherever I go. I can throw away my furniture, but these cannot be discarded! Click through for Wang's photos of the treasured documents. McClatchy's Tom Lasseter reported last October on the current wintry climate for China's investigative reporters. Wang himself wrote in 2011 that the fortunes of Chinese investigative journalism had "shown the wave-like pattern of the 'camel's hump'", but expressed some optimism for its long-term prospects. See also a 2010 Guardian profile and more on Wang, including his 2011 departure from the China Economic Times, via CDT.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: economic observer, investigative journalism, journalism, journalists, press freedom, Wang Keqin
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| Here Come China’s Drones Posted: 01 Mar 2013 10:45 AM PST Although Mekong River murderer and drug lord Naw Kham died by lethal injection yesterday, rather than by the drone strike once proposed, the military and civilian roles of China's unmanned aerial vehicles are set to expand considerably. At The Diplomat, Trefor Moss examines the state of China's drone capabilities, and the prospect of relatively cheap Chinese UAVs proliferating in the developing world. Unmanned systems have become the legal and ethical problem child of the global defense industry and the governments they supply, rewriting the rules of military engagement in ways that many find disturbing. And this sense of unease about where we're headed is hardly unfamiliar. Much like the emergence of drone technology, the rise of China and its reshaping of the geopolitical landscape has stirred up a sometimes understandable, sometimes irrational, fear of the unknown. It's safe to say, then, that Chinese drones conjure up a particularly intense sense of alarm that the media has begun to embrace as a license to panic. China is indeed developing a range of unmanned aerial vehicles/systems (UAVs/UASs) at a time when relations with Japan are tense, and when those with the U.S. are delicate. But that hardly justifies claims that "drones have taken center stage in an escalating arms race between China and Japan," or that the "China drone threat highlights [a] new global arms race," as some observers would have it. This hyperbole was perhaps fed by a 2012 U.S. Department of Defense report which described China's development of UAVs as "alarming." That's quite unreasonable. All of the world's advanced militaries are adopting drones, not just the PLA. That isn't an arms race, or a reason to fear China, it's just the direction in which defense technology is naturally progressing. Secondly, while China may be demonstrating impressive advances, Israel and the U.S. retain a substantial lead in the UAV field, with China—alongside Europe, India and Russia— still in the second tier. And thirdly, China is modernizing in all areas of military technology – unmanned systems being no exception. Nonetheless, China has started to show its hand in terms of the roles that it expects its growing fleet of UAVs to fulfill. […]
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: drones, military modernization, military technology
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| Classical Music with Chinese Characteristics Posted: 01 Mar 2013 10:44 AM PST While John Garnaut focuses on Xi Jinping's former study group of "Second Generation Reds", Sheila Melvin at ChinaFile looks at another gathering of China's political elite: the short-lived Three Highs orchestra and choir, whose members included Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in the chorus and a former astronaut on trombone. The article recounts the history of Western classical music and its instruments in China, and describes traditional connections between music and leadership. The Three Highs—San Gao, in Chinese, or "3H" in colloquial English promotional materials—is an amateur ensemble named not for any notes its performers might reach in concert, but for the status they must possess simply to be members. Indeed, "three highs" refers to the bureaucratic ranking of the ninety-seven musicians and the accompanying 141-member chorus, all of whom are high-ranking members of China's Communist Party, intelligentsia, or military. They include Minister of Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi, who sang in the chorus (along with dozens of other ministry officials); Shanghai Communist Party Secretary Han Zheng and chairman of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Bate'er, both of whom played accordion; Shenzhen Party Secretary Wang Rong, who served as concertmaster; and retired astronaut Jing Haipeng, who played trombone. […] It is near impossible to imagine any other nation on earth that would have the will, the wherewithal, or even the desire to create an ensemble like this—not to mention the moxy to call it the "Three Highs." And, indeed, there was some tongue-wagging, as on the widely circulated post on the Twitter-like Weibo that joked "three highs" was actually a reference to the high blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol of the orchestra's mostly retired members. But, while the Three Highs is many things, it is most certainly no joke. On the contrary, it is yet another signifier of the seriousness with which the PRC government takes its mission—formally announced at the 2011 plenum of the Communist Party's Central Committee—to promote the "great development and great flourishing" of Chinese culture. It is also evidence of the enduring belief that a good leader should be cultivated and cultured, and of the leadership's willingness to put its money—and time and energy—where its mouth is. The article includes video of a Shanghai Noon report on the orchestra.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: classical music, music, ruling elites, Yang Jiechi
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