The poll allows respondents four choices: "I support it, love does not require a gender difference" has received 50.1% of the vote thus far. "I oppose it, gay marriage violates social mores" has received 25.9%, with the rest saying they have no preference or cannot decide.
Although Sina can be fairly described as an ideologically neutral platform, Chinese Internet users as a whole tend to be younger, more educated, and thus likely more liberal than the population at large. But their opinions are likely predictive of social trends within China.
The impetus for the poll lies in yet another open letter written to China's congress. On February 25, a group calling itself Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays of China posted an unsigned blog entry addressed to the National People's Congress, which is scheduled to convene in Beijing in early March.
On Monday, a lesbian couple in Beijing were snubbed when they tried to register their relationship with their district office, according to the South China Morning Post:
Mayu Yu, a 27-year old social worker, said a male official at the registry told her and her partner that they could not be registered because the law did not recognise a marriage between two women.
Yu said the official quickly retreated into a back room when they tried to discuss gay marriages with him.
"It's worse than we thought as he could at least show some respect for us and explain to us what the legal obstacles are," she said.
"It has once again revealed how little public support there is for gay marriages and how much work we need to do in the fight for such rights."
Calling themselves "comrade parents" ["comrade" is often used in Chinese these days as a slang for "homosexual"], they confessed anxieties and worries for their gay children, who under China's current marriage law aren't allowed to marry their partners, and therefore excluded form rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexual couples.
"The fact that they can't legally marry puts them in a difficult situation when they try to adopt children, sign for their partners' operations, inherit assets from a deceased partner, or even buy a flat," reads the letter.
The parents then criticised the current laws.
"Is our law trying encourage homosexuals to marry heterosexuals?" they said, "Won't this produce bigger social problems?"
These parents, who come from different parts of China, published the letter through PFLAG (Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians and Gays) China, a Guangzhou-based grass roots origination that promotes LGBT rights and helps gay parents.
"The Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites have faced a serious threat from hacking attacks since they were established, and the number of hacks has risen steadily in recent years," said ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng.
"According to the IP addresses, the Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites were, in 2012, hacked on average from overseas 144,000 times a month, of which attacks from the U.S. accounted for 62.9 percent," he said.
The comments were made at a monthly news conference, which foreign reporters are not allowed to attend, and posted on the ministry's website.
Geng said he had noted reports that the United States planned to expand its cyber-warfare capability but that they were unhelpful to increasing international cooperation towards fighting hacking.
"We hope that the U.S. side can explain and clarify this."
Geng also criticized the Mandiant Report, calling it "unprofessional and not in accordance with the facts," though cyber security professionals interviewed by the Associated Press praised it for painting a detailed picture of China's state-sponsored cyber espionage program. He denied that China engaged in cyber warfare, according to Xinhua News, claiming that the Chinese military conducts drills to safeguard against cyber attacks rather than conduct their own.
CNCERT, a cyber-security institution under China's Ministry for Industry and Information Technology, said more than 14m computers in China were hijacked and controlled from foreign IP addresses last year, and more than 10m of those infiltrated machines were under control from IP addresses located in the US. The institution listed South Korea and Germany as second- and third-ranking countries of origin for attackers on Chinese computers.
In response to questions, CNCERT said it was unable to identify either victims or attackers.
Huawei, the Chinese company which is the world's second-largest vendor of telecom networking equipment, said it was also under constant attack. John Suffolk, the company's chief security officer, estimated that Huawei is attacked about 10,000 times a week.
The National Journal's Brian Fung writes that it's naive to assume that the US isn't snooping back, but he also pokes holes in China's claims:
It's obviously impossible to know whether Beijing is being honest about those figures. But if this is their way of accusing the United States of doing the same thing that they are — and that everyone should quit complaining — it's a pretty weak defense. Even if we take their figures at face value (more on that next), there's a big difference between knocking a website offline and penetrating a corporate network undetected so that you can steal trade secrets. The former involves very low stakes; anyone can do it, and the payoff is insignificant. Espionage and intelligence-gathering is all about the latter.
Sixty-three percent of China's website hacks were traced back to the United States. But, just as it's very difficult to prove with 100 percent certainty that recent cyberspying on American firms was the work of Chinese hackers and not, say, Russian or North Korean hackers routing their work through China, it's equally hard to prove that the American government was responsible for the hacks going in the other direction. This is what's called the attribution problem: All the circumstantial evidence points you to one culprit, but you can never know if you've fingered the right actor for sure. If the United States is retaliating against China with hacks of its own, website vandalism should be the least of Beijing's complaints.
The U.S. military's cyber-efforts presumably already include it own probes, penetrations, and demonstrations of capability. While the leaks claiming the U.S. government's involvement in the Stuxnet operation — the computer worm that disabled centrifuges in the Iranian nuclear program — may have damaged U.S. national security, at least China knows that Washington is quite capable of carrying out strategic cyberattacks. To enhance deterrence, the U.S. government needs to demonstrate these sorts of capabilities more regularly, perhaps through cyber-exercises modeled after military exercises. For example, the U.S. military could set up an allied public training exercise in which it conducted cyberattacks against a "Country X" to disable its military infrastructure such as radars, satellites, and computer-based command-and-control systems.
To use the tools at America's disposal in the fight for cybersecurity will require a high degree of interagency coordination, a much-maligned process. But Washington has made all the levers of power work together previously. The successful use of unified legal, law enforcement, financial, intelligence, and military deterrence against the Kim regime of North Korea during a short period of George W. Bush's administration met the strategic goals of imposing serious costs on a dangerous government. China is not North Korea — it is far more responsible and less totalitarian. But America must target those acting irresponsibly in cyberspace. By taking the offensive, the United States can start to impose, rather than simply incur, costs in this element of strategic competition with China. Sitting by idly, however, presents a much greater likelihood that China's dangerous cyberstrategy could spark a wider conflict.
As a rule, the Majialou Relief and Assistance Centre offers neither relief nor assistance. An imposing complex of red seven-storey buildings, it stands next to an expanse of rubble and a few derelict houses on the south-western fringe of the capital. Few visit unless escorted by police. Few leave except in the custody of officials or their hired thugs. It is a clearing house for Beijing's undesirables.
[…] The authorities show no sign of becoming any less zealous in rounding up protesters. Even if some of those running black jails are being punished, millions of dollars have recently been spent on upgrading and expanding the official centres that supply them with inmates. Government websites say that even before its expansion Majialou was processing an average of about 540 petitioners daily, and that as many as 7,000 people are employed by the facility. Beijing's media say the centre is now designed to handle as many as 5,000 petitioners a day. It is not clear how often this number will be reached, but a government website said last June that petitioning visits to government offices in Beijing were "increasing dramatically". Local governments are ill-equipped to cope by themselves, so black jails will remain in strong demand.
ARD correspondent Christine Adelhardt, accompanied by two German colleagues and two Chinese staff, had been filming in the village of Da Yan Ge Zhuang for a report on urbanisation, one of the incoming Chinese government's major challenges and a process that has often provoked disputes over land ownership.
[…] When the crew left, two cars, later joined by at least two others, gave chase, trying to force the Germans' minivan off the road and to deliberately cause a collision.
[…] The crew got away, but were pursued, forced off the road and onto the sidewalk, rammed, and made to stop. Two men from the pursuing vehicles attacked the minivan with baseball bats, shattering its windscreen, before the ARD driver was able to get away again by bulldozing his way past a car parked in front of the ARD van.
The crew then came across two motorcycle policemen and asked them for help. Their pursuers caught up with them, and again began smashing and punching holes in the car's windscreen, despite the police officers' attempts to control them.
China's influence is growing rapidly in Central Asia at a time when the region is looking increasingly unstable.
[...]But the Central Asian republics are increasingly beset by domestic problems. They are also vulnerable to a potentially well-organised insurgent challenge. Jihadists currently fighting beside the Taliban may re-focus their interest on the region after the 2014 NATO withdrawal from Afghanistan. Many in Beijing are alarmed by the range of challenges Central Asia faces.
[...]Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, China and its Central Asian neighbours have strengthened relations, initially on the economic front but increasingly on political and security matters as well. Central Asia's socio-economic and political problems make it prone to turmoil and vulnerable to extremist organisations, both foreign and domestically generated.
Instability or conflict in one or more of the Central Asian states would impact China, as its economic interests depend on a stable security landscape. China's investments are exposed not only to potential security crises but also to political whims of autocrats and grassroots violence.[...]
[...]America and Russia both carry the scars of long, draining entanglements in Afghanistan. Neither can be expected to enforce Central Asian peace. America has at least spelled out a more optimistic vision of the region's future as "the new Silk Road", linking Asia and Europe. The most powerful influences along that road, however, may flow from the East. China already has three profound interests in Central Asia: in securing supplies of energy; in the land route to Europe; and in ensuring stability in its own, restless part of Central Asia, Xinjiang. In return, its growing economic weight and pragmatic, "non-interfering" foreign policy make it an attractive partner for unappealing governments.
[...]China should take the initiative in Afghan affairs, while avoiding the failure of US intervention.
[...]As a result [of US intervention], Afghanistan depends heavily on the outside world, especially the West, and its own development is seriously lagging behind. China's future Afghan policy should primarily aim to establish a self-supporting, self-sustaining, and gradually developing Afghanistan.
In security, China needs to closely cooperate with the former occupation armies and Afghanistan's neighboring nations, and incorporate Afghanistan into platforms of regional cooperation, like the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
[...]In economic terms, China ought to help Afghanistan develop its financial capabilities through investments, and provide employment opportunities and infrastructure.
[...]If China can mobilize various economic powers, utilize oil gas and mineral resources in Afghanistan, and help it establish relevant industrial chains, the security situation can be ultimately stabilized.
But China's Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) issued a report that dismissed the possibility of nuclear radiation from the blast reaching the Chinese border. Quoting data from the National Meteorological Center, the MEP claimed, "Even if fallout had leaked out [from the North Korean nuclear test], the wind mainly blows towards the southeast, and China would therefore not be affected."
Many netizens weren't blown away by the MEP's assurances:
@2ndGenerationSickJiuFuTian: It seems nuclear fallout is classist; it [only] drifts towards countries with different ideologies.
@二代症久富田：核爆污染有阶级性，向不同的意识形态国家飘。
@DontWorryAlmostDone: The Third Kim decided on the nuclear blast, while the resulting radiation is under the command of China's Ministry of Environmental Protection.
@别急快完了：核爆金三儿说了算，辐射规中国环保部指挥。
@EcoProtectionDongLiangJie: Be good, dear wind. You've got to be patriotic. China's Ministry of Environmental Protection is counting on you.
@环保董良杰:风儿，乖乖，你要爱国啊。中国环保就靠你了
@WangXianSen: Even if it did blow over here, would the Ministry of Environmental Protection tell the truth?
@Wang先森：就算真飘过来了，环保部会说实话吗？
@HisOpponentIsScary: Can our Ministry of Environmental Protection's most advanced technology control the direction of the spread of radiation?
@他的对手很可怕：我环保部最新技术，控制核扩散方向？
@Oso_azul: For a nuclear test that wasn't conducted above ground or outdoors, the direction of the wind isn't such a big issue. But if it was an underground nuclear test, then what about underground water sources?
@Oso_azul：不是露天的、地面的核试验，主要不关心风向。地下核试验，那地下水源呢？
@Roookie: Even if you were talking about PM2.5 pollution, could just one gust of wind really blow it away?
@Roookie：你当是PM2.5啊，一阵风就能刮走？
@YiWeiBing: I peed myself laughing! The great General Kim has invented an intelligent form of radiation that avoids what is nearby in search of what is far away.
Jookin' is a style of street dance that originated in Memphis, Tennessee, and has been perfected by a young dancer from Memphis named Charles Riley, nicknamed Lil Buck. Last year, Lil Buck was invited to join a cultural delegation to China organized by Asia Society. Ole Schell, whose father, Orville Schell, led the delegation, produced a documentary following Lil Buck as he experienced China for the first time. For the New Yorker blog, Evan Osnos interviews Lil Buck about his trip:
What stays with you most of all about China? Well, the most surprising thing about China to me was how they rarely see people outside of their ethnicity. When I was there, they reacted to me as if I was an alien—or Chris Tucker. It's funny, but at the same time it's kind of sad how separated we are as people. I met good people who I'd go back to visit anytime. I have friends in China now that are inspired to pursue their dreams! I also learned a lot from them and I know that wouldn't be possible if I weren't there. The barriers between us, in a way, limit inspiration.
Watch Schell's full documentary here:
Also watch Lil Buck perform "The Swan" with cellist Yo Yo Ma:
Because PM 2.5 uses the Latin alphabet, the China National Committee for Terms in Sciences and Technologies is conducting research and gauging opinions from all walks of life to name the term properly, it said.
People nationwide are contributing creative terms, including 'Beijing grey', 'toxic dust', 'air pollution index' and 'cough trigger'.
In addition to the people who are busy brainstorming, some also suggest that the government should focus more on relieving the dense smog rather than providing a fancy name.
@weishijiang: These bricksperts aren't thinking about pollution control, they're just wasting their time. Why not change all the symbols into math textbooks into Chinese characters, or all the formulae for chemical reactions … even better, why not change all the programming code in computer textbooks into Chinese script?
@pingxinerlun: I'm laughing my head off at this discussion: Beijing cough particles, toxic dust, 2:30 p.m., Beijing gray, Little 250 … I think these bricksperts might be planning to raise the PM2.5 particles as pets. I don't see the point in changing a term that everyone already understands and accepts.
@我系J臣：按照央视的习惯，应该译成"皮阿姆贰点伍"吧。
@woxiJchen: According to CCTV custom, it should be called "pi emu er dian wu" ["PM2.5" phonetically transcribed into Chinese].
@邵明波：别折腾了。建议官方将其定名为"幸福颗粒"吧。
@shaomingbo: Don't fret. I suggest that officials call them "Happiness Particles."
"Shitizen 250" – PM is the initials of Pi Min (屁民) which, in Chinese, means citizens who have been treated by their government like shit [CDT translate this term "rabble"]; and 250 is a slang in Chinese for the dumb and stupid.
"Happy Particles with Chinese Characteristics"
"National Secret" – Background: last week, China Environmental Bureau refused to dislocate soil pollution data in the country, saying the information is state secret.
On Weibo, a kind of Chinese Twitter, I recently made a joking comparison between media censorship and the pervasive threat of contaminated food, a constant source of worry:
"There's no end to these food scares," a friend sighed. "Is there any hope of a solution?"
"Oh, all we need is for food inspections to be as forceful as film censorship," I told him breezily. "With all that faultfinding and nit-picking, food-safety issues will be resolved in no time."
More than 12,000 readers reposted this. One wrote: I know what we should do. Let's have those in charge of film, newspaper and book censorship take over food safety, and have those responsible for food safety censor films, papers and books. That way we'll have food safety — and freedom of expression as well!
The writer's vanity likes to imagine permanence, but Fuling reminds me that words are quicksilver. Their meaning changes with every age, every perspective—it's like the White Crane Ridge, whose inscriptions have a different significance now that they appear in an underwater museum. Today anybody who reads River Town knows that China has become economically powerful and that the Three Gorges Dam is completed, and this changes the story. And I'll never know what the Fuling residents of 1998 would have thought of the book, because those people have also been transformed. There's a new confidence to urban Chinese; the outside world seems much less remote and threatening. And life has moved so fast that even the 1990s feels as nostalgic as a black-and-white photo. Recently Emily sent me an email: "With a distance of time, everything in the book turns out to be charming, even the dirty, tired flowers."
One evening I have dinner with Huang Xiaoqiang, his wife, Feng Xiaoqin, and their family, who used to own my favorite noodle restaurant. In 1998 Huang acquired his driver's license and told me he hoped to buy a car someday, which seemed impossible with his limited family income. But tonight he picks me up at my hotel in a new black Chinese BYD sedan. Huang drives exactly two blocks to a restaurant, and then we drive exactly two more blocks to his family home. These journeys may be short, but they provide ample time for Huang to make full use of his dashboard DVD player.
After dinner he insists on chauffeuring me back to my hotel. He tells me that his brother-in-law, who doesn't speak English, used a dictionary to read River Town. He went word by word; it took two years. "In your book you wrote that my biggest dream was to have a car," Huang says. "And this is the third one I've owned!"
Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department: Regarding the trash dumps in the upper reaches of the Miyun Reservoir, all media coverage is to be conducted in accordance with the information released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Media are not to conduct their own coverage or commentary. From now on, media are to submit drafts of all reports involving public opinion to be examined and approved by the Municipal Propaganda Department. (February 25, 2013)
Two directives from the Beijing Municipal Propaganda Department were reported on February 25, 2013. The first directive referred to an apparent act of vandalism at the Chairman Mao Memorial Mausoleum on Tiananmen Square.
The second directive forbade coverage of trash dump sites near the Miyun Reservoir from deviating from official information released by the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. Recently, fears spread that the reservoir, which is reported to supply about two-thirds of Beijing's drinking water, was being contaminated by illegal dumping.
Public awareness of the issue can be traced back to a call by popular Weibo personality Deng Fei for Spring Festival travelers to take note of the condition of the environment in their respective hometowns. Mr. Deng, who is the director of the department of reporting at Hong Kong based Phoenix Weekly, is a champion of environmental causes in China. H generated tremendous buzz on Weibo last week when he accused Shandong officials of forbidding media coverage of illegal pollution in Shandong Province.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
Secretary Kerry's apparent unease with the pivot has unsurprisingly set the Chinese press all atwitter and given Chinese analysts some hope that President Obama has appointed a kinder, gentler Secretary of State. The major Chinese state-supported newspapers—the Global Times, People's Daily, and Xinhua—highlighted his remarks on the pivot and then offered some thoughts on Kerry's likely diplomatic approach [….]
[…] By suggesting that the pivot may be out of favor, Secretary Kerry has also drawn into question U.S. credibility. Officials and analysts abroad have already raised doubts about U.S. staying power in the Asia Pacific; Secretary Kerry's doubts will only add fuel to the fire.
[…] Secretary Kerry understandably wants to make his mark on U.S. foreign policy over the next few years, and he appears to be setting himself a challenging agenda, including making progress on a free trade agreement with Europe and restarting the Middle East peace talks. However, the original logic of the pivot—ensuring security in the Asia Pacific and taking advantage of the region's economic dynamism through a free trade agreement—still stands. It's too early to pivot away.
Kerry's balancing act, as he seems to see it, is about how to engage in Asia without unduly upsetting China and damaging the important (and sometimes-tenuous) U.S.-China relationship. It looks like Kerry might be erring a little more on the side of preserving friendly U.S.-China relations than Hillary Clinton did as secretary of state, when she cultivated close ties with Southeast Asian states, often to Beijing's outrage. That doesn't mean that Kerry is giving up on Asia, of course, but it suggests a different set of priorities there, more about maintaining a positive status quo than trying to assert a new dynamic.
If a goal of Kerry's pivot-away-from-the-pivot is to improve ties with China, it looks like that plan might already be succeeding. But if it's just about Kerry having more interest in the Middle East, where he has deeper experience, then that could be China's gain.
In a forum on China's leadership transition at the CFR last week, the Brookings Institution's Cheng Li noted other reasons that the Chinese might welcome Kerry. Elizabeth Economy and Edward Luttwack of the Center for Strategic and International Studies also participated in the discussion, which was chaired by Bloomberg News' Thomas Keene.
KEENE: Do you see a cohesiveness from Secretary Clinton over to Secretary Kerry or would you guess that there will be changes?
LI: Well, during Hillary Clinton's four years, we all see — also see a lot of changes. Early on, the Chinese loved her, but later become more critical for the reasons maybe justified, maybe not justified, but certainly they are excited about John Kerry, because John Kerry himself cultivated very good relationships with both Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, based on my knowledge. So it's a good beginning. I hope that in a very critical moment that the United States will establish a very solid relationship with Chinese leaders, but also more articulate to the Chinese public, the Chinese public intellectuals about our position, about our policies towards China and a regional stability in the Asia Pacific.
SPIEGEL: Unspeakable things happen in many of your novels. In "The Garlic Ballads," for example, a pregnant woman, already in labor, hangs herself. Still, "Frog" seems to be your sternest book. Is that why it took so long to write?
Mo: I carried the idea for this book with me for a long time but then wrote it relatively quickly. You are right, I felt heavy when I penned the novel. I see it as a work of self-criticism.
SPIEGEL: In what sense? You carry no personal responsibility for the violence and the forced abortions described in your book.
Mo: China has gone through such tremendous change over the past decades that most of us consider ourselves victims. Few people ask themselves, though: 'Have I also hurt others?' "Frog" deals with this question, with this possibility. I, for example, may have been only 11 years old in my elementary school days, but I joined the red guards and took part in the public criticism of my teacher. I was jealous of the achievements, the talents of other people, of their luck. Later, I even asked my wife to have an abortion for the sake of my own future. I am guilty.
SPIEGEL: You are not only a member of the party, you have repeatedly said that you retain a utopian vision of communism. Yet don't your books show step by step that this utopia doesn't always become reality? And should you not therefore consider letting go of this utopia altogether?
Mo: What Marx wrote in the "The Communist Manifesto" was of great beauty. However, it seems to be very hard to make that dream come true. But then again, I look at those European, specifically Northern European, states and societies and wonder: Would these welfare states even be thinkable without Marx? We used to say in China that in a way Marxism has saved capitalism. Because those who benefited most from his ideology seem to be societies in the West. We Chinese, Russians and Eastern Europeans seem to have misunderstood Marxism.
The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by central government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
GuangdongPropaganda Department: With regards to the issue of the flow of rice (contaminated with heavy metal) from Hunan to Nanyue, report in strict accordance with information from authoritative bureaus. Do not sensationalize the story, make it prominent, or lure people to it. We reiterate that the media may not investigate or comment on strikes, sit-ins, petitions, or similar activities without prior authorization. (February 27, 2013)
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
In the heady days of the early post-Mao years, as China began opening to the world, a youthful Xi Jinping attended a fortnightly study group with other top leaders' children to network, enjoy friendship and make sense of the change around them.
Mr Xi, now general secretary of the Communist Party, stayed close with the group as they worked the long and sometimes treacherous path towards the apex of the party, as their fathers had before them, and came to identify as Hongerdai, or "Second Generation Red".
[…] The Mao faithful are hoping, and liberal intellectuals and private entrepreneurs are worried, that Mr Xi will symbolically foreclose any short-term possibility of political reform by holding a big celebration of Mao's 120th birthday at the end of this year.
"This is a big test," said He Weifang, a lawyer who was involved in building the political case against Bo Xilai. "This is an important occasion and requires Xi to deliver a speech or make some decision."
In the middle row in a tan jacket stands businessman Hu Shiying, who runs a plethora of official and quasi-official organisations ranging from martial arts to green technology. The convenor of the close-knit study group, Hu is the son of Hu Qiaomu, Chairman Mao Zedong's main secretary. […]
[…] Standing next to him is Xi, the son of a vice premier; then Wang Qishan, the son-in-law of a vice premier and a member of China's top decision making body, the Politburo Standing Committee, where he's in charge of fighting corruption. Wang stands next to Liu Xiaojiang, who as Navy Commissar is one of the most important officials in the PLA Navy; Liu is also the son of a general and the son-in-law of former Party boss Hu Yaobang.
[…] On Saturday, at the fellowship's reunion during China's annual Spring Festival holiday, [Hu Shiying's sister, Hu] Muying urged her fellow princelings to get involved in "affairs of state" — and that they are, continuing the tradition of their ancestors. When the photo appeared on the website, the princelings were described as "brothers and sisters." At a December speech commemorating Mao's 119th birthday, Hu described his "eyes welling with tears" when singing revolutionary songs. "We are Mao's family members," he said.
Lee made no mention of China — even though China claims Taiwan as a renegade province and tensions run high between them — but he did end his speech by thanking the audience in Chinese (as well as English and Sanskrit). Was his omission of China deliberate? It's impossible to say. (Curiously, Lee thanked China after he won in 2005.)
[…] There's no shortage of tweets embracing Lee as "the pride of the Chinese people," and "the pride of Chinese film." However, this patriotic cheerleading has its detractors. Tengjing Shu, a Shanghai-based film critic, summarized her objections in a lengthy mid-afternoon tweet:
"A journalist asked me what kind of influence Life of Pi and its four awards will have on Chinese film. I said that it was irrelevant to China. The awards, and the fact that Life of Pi was shot in Taiwan, only serve to highlight problems with Chinese filmmaking."
Hao Jie, a young director whose 2010 film Single Man won the Special Jury Prize in the Tokyo Filmex Festival and numerous plaudits from critics but was never screened in the mainland for its depiction of complex sex lives in a village, sounded off on his frustrations.
"Due to the censorship, we are restrained from the beginning of our production, which forbids our works from mirroring genuine realities," Hao told the Global Times.
While acknowledging the system's role in undermining excellent works, Su Mu, a professor with Beijing Film Academy and well-known film critic, told the Global Times that the atmosphere in the mainland's film circle is also to blame.
Su argued that the film examination system in Iran, which is equally strict, did not stop Iranian filmmakers from producing good works.
"Lee produces his works with his heart, but most mainland directors now only have money in mind," commented Su, adding that the bad atmosphere is consistent with the overall situation of the society.
The frigate, delivered in Shanghai yesterday, has stealth capabilities, will be responsible for patrol escort, and can carry out anti-submarine warfare, the PLA Daily said. Admiral Wu Shengli, a member of the Central Military Commission, attended the ceremony.
The frigate's delivery is part of a wider military advance that's seen China commission its first aircraft carrier and enhance its jet-fighter program. It comes after Chinese and Japanese vessels have tailed each other for months around the islands, raising tensions and straining a $340 billion trade relationship.
[…] China's defense spending, the second highest in the world after the U.S., was set to grow 11.2 percent to 670 billion yuan ($106.4 billion) in 2012. The country will announce its 2013 figure just before the annual meeting of its legislature begins next week.
These transport workhorses are unlikely to arouse the same regional unease as the steady rollout of high performance fighters, long-range missiles or potent warships, but they are a crucial element of the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) three-decade military build-up, defense analysts say.
Over time, the air and sea support will give the world's second-largest navy greater geographical reach and will enhance the PLA's capacity to assist troops on distant battlefields, potentially including Taiwan if Beijing were to launch a military assault to take control of the self-governing island.
China's state-owned shipyards last year launched two 23,000-tonne type 903 replenishment ships, according to reports and photographs published on Chinese military affairs websites and blogs, with further orders in the pipeline.
[…] China also confirmed last month that the PLA had conducted the first test flight of its Y-20 heavy lift aircraft from the Yanliang airbase near Xi'an in Shaanxi Province.
The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.
In a December 2007 segment produced by CCTV's flagship program News Simulcast (新闻联播 Xīnwén Liánbō) on the easy availability of "unhealthy and vulgar Internet content," a young girl fretted, "The last time that I got on the Internet to search for information, a web page popped up suddenly. It was very erotic and very violent. I hurried and closed the page." (Her appearance is available in Chinese on YouTube here.)
Netizens wondered how a web page could be both violent and erotic (sadomasochistic web pages are extremely rare in China) and how such a website could appear unless the girl was looking for such content (which would be unlikely given her age). People suspected that she had been fed her lines.
Her statement is similar to that of Gao Ye, who claimed that his friend had become very disturbed from viewing pornographic content on the web. Gao Ye was later outed as a CCTV intern.
"Very erotic, very violent" has stood the test of time: a search for the phrase on Weibo in February 2013 returned over two million results.
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