Blogs » Politics » Cartoon: Chen Guangcheng’s Kiss of Freedom, by Hexie Farm (蟹农场)

Blogs » Politics » Cartoon: Chen Guangcheng’s Kiss of Freedom, by Hexie Farm (蟹农场)

Cartoon: Chen Guangcheng’s Kiss of Freedom, by Hexie Farm (蟹农场)

Posted: 20 May 2012 10:00 PM PDT

Wang Lijun To Face Treason Charges

Posted: 20 May 2012 08:51 PM PDT

The South China Morning Post [$$] is reporting that , 's former police chief whose February visit to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu sparked China's biggest political in two decades, will stand trial for treason as early as next month:

The trial will take place in Sichuan province's capital, , home to the US consulate where Wang fled. It remains unknown whether the trial will be open to the press or the public, the sources said. Wang could face the death penalty.

If the trial goes ahead as reported, it will serve as a good indication that the outcome of two other connected cases, those of Bo and of his wife Gu Kailai, a murder suspect in the mysterious death of a British businessman, will also be known shortly.

…

Hong Kong-based China law expert Ong Yew-kim said yesterday that he believed Wang could hardly be sentenced to death "as he neither killed anyone, nor had been caught in possession of weaponry".

"But I wouldn't be surprised if he receives eight or 10 years of jail terms," Ong said.

Another source in Chongqing said earlier that Wang, despite his defection attempt, had been acknowledged to "have made a major contribution" to investigations into the Bo scandal.

As the investigations into Bo Xilai and his wife have snowballed, the web of people associated with the scandal has grown as well. The New York Times' Ed Wong and Jonathan Ansfield reported today that with the relationship between Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun hanging by a thread just days before Wang turned up at the U.S. consulate, three close and powerful allies of Bo rushed to Chongqing to broker a peace:

The most famous of the three, Xu Ming, 41, listed by Forbes as China's eighth-richest person in 2005, had flown in on his private jet. He and the others held separate meetings with Mr. Bo and Mr. Wang. The damage was irreparable. The former intelligence agent, Yu Junshi, rushed home and stuffed a bag with 1.2 million renminbi, or nearly $200,000, to take to a bank with Ma Biao, the other businessman, known for his girth. Then all three fled to Australia within days, fearful of the fallout from a possible investigation of Mr. Bo.

Those figures are now being detained as central suspects or witnesses in the Chinese government's broad investigation into Mr. Bo's use of power. His fall from the party's top echelons has opened a window on how some of his closest allies from his years as a rising official in northeast China became entwined in the social and economic fabric of Chongqing, a fast-growing western municipality of 31 million that Mr. Bo governed for four years. The accounts about those allies, which raise questions about Mr. Bo's relations with tycoons, are based primarily on interviews with six people associated with the circle, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of facing official scrutiny, and a review of financial documents and company Web sites. Together, they reveal the workings of the shadowy court of one of China's leaders, and of the panic that set in when these ambitious figures realized their world was about to collapse.

"These are powerful men with their own style," said one person who has met with Mr. Yu. "It was all very strange, very abnormal, the way they acted at that time."

…

The three men who fled to Australia have been held for two months. They left after Mr. Wang's consulate visit, but returned to China in about 10 days on Mr. Xu's private jet, thinking that Mr. Bo had avoided serious trouble. They were picked up by the police around the time that Mr. Bo was removed as party chief of Chongqing on March 15, according to several people who knew the men or their friends and families. One with security contacts said almost 60 people had been detained.

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Chen arrives in US to study in New York University

Posted: 20 May 2012 07:13 PM PDT

Chinese blind activist Chen Guangcheng arrived in the US on Saturday and will begin his studies in New York University (NYU), while observers said Chen may face a tougher life than anticipated.

"I'm very grateful for the assistance of the US embassy (in Beijing) and also (for) receiving a promise from the Chinese government for protection of my rights as a citizen over the long term," Chen said through an interpreter outside an NYU building in Manhattan's Greenwich Village upon his arrival with his wife and two children, according to Reuters.

The activist said he believes that the promise from the Chinese government is "sincere."

Chen, who has reportedly expressed his concerns over the fate of his relatives left at home, will study at the US-Asia Law Institute (UALI) during his stay at NYU.

The Chens received their passports from Chinese officials shortly before they boarded a United Airlines plane, The New York Times reported.

Chen was accompanied on the flight by two Chinese-speaking officials from the US embassy in Beijing and was met at the airport by officials from the US Department of State and Jerome Cohen, co-director of UALI.

"We express our appreciation for the manner in which we were able to resolve this matter and to support Chen's desire to study in the US and pursue his goals," said Victoria Nuland, spokesperson for the State Department.

Ruan Zongze, vice president of the China Institute of International Studies, told the Global Times that the Chinese government had shown its flexibility in dealing with this incident.

Ruan added that Chen may encounter a harder life than expected, and some of the dissidents before Chen had found themselves "devalued" after going abroad.

"He may get some assistance from human rights organizations in the beginning, but there are many problems lying ahead," Ruan said.

Chen, a native of Yinan county in eastern China's Shandong Province, entered the US embassy in Beijing late April and left on his own volition after staying there for six days, according to China's foreign ministry.

He received medical treatment on his leg in Beijing's Chaoyang Hospital before his departure to the US.

Agencies contributed to this story

Source: Global Times

Detained Chinese fishermen released: DPRK

Posted: 20 May 2012 06:45 PM PDT

PYONGYANG – All detained Chinese fishermen and their vessels had been freed, the foreign ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said Sunday.

Counsellor Jiang Yaxian with the Chinese embassy to Pyongyang told Xinhua that the DPRK foreign ministry had notified the embassy of the latest development.

The vessels and the crews have been on their way back home, Jiang said.

Jiang said Friday that the detained Chinese fishing crews were in "sound health condition with sufficient food and healthcare," and that "part of the detained vessels and crews have already been back to China."

Ambassador Liu Hongcai and other Chinese diplomats have been working actively on the detention of the Chinese fishermen along with their vessels "through negotiation and close contact."

On Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had been staying in close communication with the DPRK through relevant channels to push for a proper resolution to the issue at an early date.

China demanded the DPRK ensure the safety and legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese fishermen, he said at a daily news briefing.

It was reported that the fishing boats and their crews were held in custody by the DPRK on May 8.

Source: Xinhua

Taiwan President Pledges Close Ties with China

Posted: 20 May 2012 07:58 PM PDT

After Ma Ying-jeou's successful reelection and hopes for improved cross-strait relations, President Ma has pledged to build stronger relations with China in his inauguration address. The Voice of America reports:

The Taiwanese president, who was first elected in 2008 on pledges to ease tension with rising military power China, said he would stick to that course. President said he expected more deals like the 16 trade, transit and economic agreements that were signed between the two sides over the past four years.

But President Ma told a news conference he was in no hurry to sign a formal peace accord with Beijing without popular support. He was criticized after making the suggestion last year.

He says Taiwan will handle easy but pressing issues with China before tackling harder ones and consider economic issues ahead of political ones. In that spirit, he says, there is no urgency to discuss a peace accord now with China, and Taiwan's people must first express a high level of support, including a voter referendum.

President Ma said on Sunday he had heard the public's voice. But his government has said it expects to sign an investment protection guarantee with China this year, helping about a million of the island's business people. Officials on the island also expect to cut thousands of import tariffs and lower barriers for Chinese investors interested in Taiwanese companies, all before Ma leaves office in 2016.

While Ma addressed Taiwan's relationship with China, critics claim that his pledge lacks a clear blueprint. There have also been criticism that Ma's lack of improvement on domestic issues overshadows the improved relationship with China. The Wall Street Journal adds:

Starting Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside the presidential office, with grievances including Mr. Ma's failure to deliver on two major campaign pledges in his first four-year term: to lower the jobless rate to 3% (the latest data, for March, show a rate of 4.17%) and to accelerate real wage growth (it's rising at a snail's pace). The wealth gap remains wide, with the annual disposable income of the top 20% earners now 6.19 times that of the bottom 20%.

Adding to those complaints are the government's withdrawal of its longtime subsidies on fuel and electricity last month and its plan to reimpose capital-gains tax on stock transactions, which spurred discontent from the middle class and business community.

In June 2010, Taipei and Beijing signed a landmark trade pact to gradually lift tariffs on goods and investment barriers between the two sides. During Mr. Ma's first time, 16 cross-straits agreements were reached, including one allowing visits from individual Chinese rather than just tour groups—a much-needed boost for Taiwan's tourism industry. Despite the lingering mistrust between the two sides—Beijing continues to to assert its right to annex Taiwan by force, according to the latest assessment—military tension has relaxed substantially, a much welcomed change to the U.S.

Cross-strait détente and increased bilateral trade helped Mr. Ma to secure a second term, but analysts said the president should not count on help from China, implicit or explicit, in reversing the plummet in his popularity.

Prior to Ma's inauguration speech, thousands of protesters had gathered due to the Taiwan president's stance on cross-strait relations.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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China Approves Google’s Acquisition of Motorola

Posted: 20 May 2012 07:55 PM PDT

Despite longstanding tensions between Google and China due to rules on internet access and censorship, China has recently approved of Google's acquisition of Motorola. The Associated Press reports:

Authorities in China have approved Inc.'s bid to buy phone maker Motorola Mobility, clearing the way for the $12.5 billion deal to close early next week.

The approval brings the Internet search giant closer to sealing its biggest acquisition ever. Buying Motorola allows Google to expand into manufacturing phones, tablet computers and other consumer devices for the first time. The deal also gives Google access to more than 17,000 Motorola patents.

The Chinese government approved the deal on Saturday, Google spokeswoman Niki Fenwick said. "We look forward to closing the deal," she said.

Although China has given Google the OK, they have also stipulated that Android, Google's mobile operating system, remains free and open for the next five years. CNET adds:

The stipulation would seem to be designed to keep Google from denying Motorola's handset competitors access to the mobile operating system, or from giving Motorola an advantage of some sort — such as integration between its handsets and Android that's tighter than connections between rival phones and the OS.

From the beginning, Google has taken an open approach with Android, making it free and available to any hardware manufacturer — a strategy that's helped to quickly make Android the No. 1 mobile OS globally.

"Many hardware partners have contributed to Android's success and we look forward to continuing our work with all of them on an equal basis to deliver outstanding user experiences," Google CEO Larry Page said during a conference call last August, at the time the intended acquisition was announced. "We built Android as an open-source platform and it will stay that way."

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Fallows: defensive, gets feelings hurt

Posted: 20 May 2012 06:48 PM PDT

I really don't know how anyone can defend James Fallows. Ever since I had this exchange with him, I knew the guy to be a scoundrel (what better evidence does one need?) but some people still insist on defending him.

Fallows is cut from the same rotting wood as most western "journalists." He had another, shall we say, episode recently when he displayed righteous indignation at CCTV Dialogue's host Yang Rui's outburst on his personal Weibo account. Fallows then wrote a pouty response urging western journalists not to go on that show. Anyone who has seen Dialogue knows that it is a quality show, far better than any comparable show in the US and it has a diversity of opinions represented from real experts and sometimes criticizers of Chinese policies (including Fallows).

But reading Fallows' latest "piece," one realizes that the controversial and xenophobic comments (which I know few people would want to defend) by Yang Rui are but a convenient excuse for why Fallows does not want to go on Dialogue anymore and urges other western people to do so as well.

The first portion of Fallows' rant has nothing to do with Rui's personal Weibo post but with a general "complaint" (bitch fest) about Dialogue's temerity towards their foreign guests (they tend to ask critical questions, questions Fallows are hard pressed to answer) .

Now, the tricky part. Many foreigners who have been on the show know the experience I had during my few appearances, early in my time in China. When you're on the set before the show begins, there is a lot of light and non-dogmatic chat with the hosts and the other guest(s). But once the show begins, the tone often shifts, with an opening question from the host on the lines of: "To our guest James Fallows, I must ask: do you not agree that the United States is being unfair and unreasonable in the demands it is making of the Chinese government? Especially considering its many failures at home and its relative decline in standing in the world?" Then once the show is over, it's light, easy, non-agitprop chat again.

As we can see Fallows considers questions such as "do you not agree that the United States is being unfair and unreasonable in the demands it is making of the Chinese government?" to be "dogmatic" (i.e., CCP propaganda). Its' "tone" is equally unsettling. It is "agitprop." He would prefer that the "tone" be kept "light;" no doubt he wishes to be asked questions that even a stupid and ignorant journalist can answer without being flustered.

One can imagine the thoughts Fallows has in mind perhaps something like "How dare this Chinaman ask me, a white man, an American no less, these hard questions!? It's my job to ask the hard questions and it's the Chinese that must answer them. I am a journalist with credential. People admire me."

Why can't they just throw him a softball like American journalists do with American politicians to make the later looks smart and competent?

When journalists from other countries do the job that journalists are supposed to do, that is, start with asking critical questions (something that appears to be wholly alien to Fallows unless when he directs them at defenders of Chinese policy), we can see the response displaying an attitude that can only be described as arrogant, defiant entitled.

Fallows tail-tucks to protect his vulnerability, gets angry at the exposure of an almost pathological insecurity. His pride is wounded. He yelps in fear and must wait for his wounds to heal so he can strike back in some way. Everyone else treats him with the regard he thinks is entitled to a white man in China so why don't these hosts do the same? Aren't they his '"friends"?

So we see the mindset of Fallows. He cannot handle true dialogue. Dialogue presupposes the potential for questions, some of which may ask for good reasons. When good reasons cannot be given, that is reason itself to be suspicious on behalf of everyone else. Of course, my brief exchange with him through email already shows him in this light.

Yang Rui dares to ask questions western journalists are often too cowardly or too incompetent or too corrupt to ask anyone including other journalists. Dialogue also allows, as Fallows makes note, the opportunity for people to respond to questions unlike many western and especially US political talk shows which will not even air truly divergent views or cuts people off and edits the response to construct a much weaker response.

"Divergent" voices on comparable US talk shows "debate" positions such as whether invading Iran using nukes or with conventional weapons is the best option. Truly divergent voices are rarely ever heard (right before the Iraq invasion, FAIR did a study that showed the pro-war voice in the US media outnumbered the anti-war voice by a factor of 25 to 1). So one can imagine the shock ('startled' in Fallows' words) some people might have when coming across actual journalism.

Fallows then quotes approvingly the comments from a blogger that calls Yang Rui's angry Weibo comments "racist". Fallows also calls it a "David Duke-style diatribe." As angry and as xenophobic as they were, they were not racist. Here's the offending post from Yang quoted in full:

The Public Security Bureau wants to clean out the foreign trash: To arrest foreign thugs and protect innocent girls, they need to concentrate on the disaster zones in [student district] Wudaokou and [drinking district] Sanlitun. Cut off the foreign snake heads. People who can't find jobs in the U.S. and Europe come to China to grab our money, engage in human trafficking and spread deceitful lies to encourage emigration. Foreign spies seek out Chinese girls to mask their espionage and pretend to be tourists while compiling maps and GPS data for Japan, Korea and the West. We kicked out that foreign bitch and closed Al-Jazeera's Beijing bureau. We should shut up those who demonize China and send them packing.

This shows that often, it is the racists themselves that often like to play the race card. By playing the race card, racists can better hide their own racism by pointing an accusatory finger at others. Also it is those who have the most to hide that often accuse others of being defensive while behaving defensively themselves.

So xenophobia is mistaken for something more serious and a personal blog is taken to be signs of something deeply insidious of the show Dialogue and even of the whole Chinese media.

Now one can only compare this paranoid response at someone's personal Weibo blog with the blatant racism or anti-Chinese bias within the mainstream media (see here here here here and here from Fallows' own reporting just as recent examples). The west does not need to veil its racism and prejudice when directed at the Chinese. They can be as explicit, as over-the-top, as they wish because it is so accepted in mainstream western society to be racist towards the Chinese. No one even bats an eye at it. That is what real racism looks like.

Chen Guangcheng Speaks from New York

Posted: 20 May 2012 06:38 PM PDT

Chen Guangcheng, who arrived in New York on Saturday, greeted a cheering crowd outside New York University with a short speech. From NTDTV, via Shanghaiist:

From the Associated Press:

"I believe that no matter how difficult the environment nothing is impossible if you put your heart to it," he told a cheering crowd at shortly after arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport on Saturday evening.

"We should link our arms to continue in the fight for the goodness in the world and to fight against injustice. So, I think that all people should apply themselves to this end to work for the common good worldwide …."

"For the past seven years, I have never had a day's rest," Chen said through a translator, "so I have come here for a bit of recuperation for body and in spirit."

Chen thanked the U.S. and Chinese governments, along with the embassies of Switzerland, Canada and France.

Some Americans welcomed Chen not with cheers but, in comments collected by Offbeat China, with complaints about the burden he would place on the US taxpayer. The combined hourly rate of the several US officials who negotiated on his behalf is likely quite high; however, an NYU spokesman told The Wall Street Journal that, while he could not discuss financial specifics, "I don't think it will come as a surprise to anyone that there have been significant offers of philanthropy regarding Mr. Chen."

With Chen and his family finally out of China, diplomats involved in the wrangling that secured their departure anonymously disclosed their account of the negotiations to The Washington Post.

Over the course of the negotiations, the Chinese never put any proposals on the table. Their role was strictly reactive. At the end of each meeting, Cui would leave to report the latest terms to Chinese leaders. At times, he would enter the next meeting having come directly from the compound reserved for China's highest leaders.

"We would put something forward, and were getting answers back almost immediately from the highest levels," one senior administration official said. "I have never seen the Chinese government working this rapidly and efficiently."

Meanwhile, the 12-hour time difference with Washington meant U.S. negotiators were getting little sleep, spending most of their night hours briefing the White House and State Department via secure lines at the embassy.

Negotiating with Chen could sometimes be as difficult as negotiating with Chinese officials. Conversations with him could be deeply moving. He often seemed fragile — a blind man with few possessions, sleeping in a small unadorned room in the barracks of the embassy. He talked of how much he missed his wife and worried about his children.

But he could pivot in an instant, displaying a steely shrewdness as he detailed the demands he wanted conveyed to Chinese officials.

One Chinese scholar quoted by the South China Morning Post drew a pessimistic conclusion from the episode:

"It was an acceptable solution among the three parties after a series of negotiations between Beijing and Washington," Professor Shi Yinhong , a Sino-US expert at Renmin University, said. "But I hope Chen's incident is just an isolated case, not a trend."

Shi said mainland scholars were more suspicions about US intentions towards China's internal issues after Chen's case. It came at a sensitive time, just before the Sino-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

"I think our leadership should remain vigilant … because the Chen case showed Washington doesn't watch us only on our human rights," Shi said.

"It also wants to affect our politics at the highest level."

But Orville Schell was among many who pointed to encouraging signs for the crucial US-China relationship in the two sides' conduct during the crisis.

… China showed either a new maturity, or a much keener sense of realism, perhaps recognizing that relations with the U.S. are even more important than the fate of a single dissident, even if his flight is represents a sublime loss of face ….

In many ways, it is tempting to look back at the whole transaction as something of a hopeful breakthrough. With a minimum of posturing, the two countries did manage to work their way through a very difficult problem. Evidently, each saw sufficient common interest to find a mutually agreeable solution. That is a very hopeful sign.

At The New Yorker, Evan Osnos saw similar grounds for cautious optimism in Chen's expression of gratitude to the Chinese government for their "restraint and calm":

… It might not have been the first thanks on everyone's lips. One could read that as a diplomatic comment, intended to protect those still in China, including his mother (whose house is reportedly being fenced off by local officials) and the fellow who helped him escape.

But it must also be read as the measure of a man with extraordinary presence of mind. He is, after all, correct: by the standards of official Chinese conduct in many other areas, its handling of Chen's departure was restrained and calm. And that is one of the modestly encouraging facts to emerge from the final accounting of this whole complicated business: presented with diplomatic dynamite, neither China nor the United States succumbed to its worst instincts. The American handling of the affair was far better than the fevered early indictments suggested, and the Chinese have, so far, kept their promises to Chen and the United States. Those involved should take confidence from that ….

And from Bloomberg:

… With Chen now in New York, the two sides can return to nurturing a relationship that has progressed to a point that a case like his can be handled without a serious rupture, said Douglas Paal, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.

"It reinforces the trend since late 2010 for the two leaderships to find a way to steer around sensitive subjects and promote pragmatic near-term relations," Paal said ….

"I think this brings the matter to a close," Bonnie Glaser, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said in an e-mail. "Both countries will focus on their domestic politics, upcoming elections in the U.S. and the 18th Party Congress in China later this year."

While many headlines hailed Chen's arrival in the US as an ending, Perry Link told NPR that although "the tangle is finished for this particular case, it seems … the problems of human rights in China are not problems of one or two people whose cases have to 'be resolved,' quote-unquote. It's a very deep, underlying long-term problem and we should view it that way." As others stressed, the news brings no resolution for family and supporters still in China. From Jonathan Watts at The Guardian:

Nicholas Bequelin of said Chen's departure was no cause for celebration as his family remained under pressure and there may be less incentive for the central government to investigate wrongdoing by the local authorities.

More importantly, Bequelin said, it raised questions about the wider environment for activists. "This is a reflection that there is no room for human rights defenders in China. We don't know if this will turn into a temporary stay or exile, but in either case it begs the questions why someone like Chen Guangcheng cannot freely operate in China. What is it that stops the authorities from tolerating or even embracing someone like Chen?"

Bequelin's comments were echoed, perhaps surprisingly, in a weibo post by editor-in-chief, Hu Xijin, quoted by Didi Kirsten Tatlow at The New York Times: "Today, Chen and his family have already taken an American airplane to New York. It makes people feel regret and sigh that in China today this is the only way to solve his problem." His wistfulness was not matched by an editorial in his paper, which took a dismissive tone: "The drama around Chen is a colorful bubble. Nothing is left when it bursts." Otherwise, as Tatlow wrote, Chinese media were largely silent about his departure, focusing instead on athletic victories, the South China Sea, or the ongoing clean-up of 'foreign trash'. The famously independent Caixin did publish a report on Chen's arrival in New York, but William Farris noted on Google+ that this was quickly taken down.

While some expressed reservations or disappointment, there was broad approval of Chen's decision to leave from activists remaining in China. The Guardian's Jonathan Watts spoke to several:

He Peirong – who played a key role in the escape by driving Chen from Shandong to Beijing – said she sympathised, even though the reverberations of Chen's flight remain unclear. "I support any decision made by Chen, but it's too early to say whether his departure is a good thing for China's rights movement. Things are not settled. Problems are not solved. His family is still in China. The people who helped him escape are still in China."

He – who was detained for several days after Chen's escape and remains under surveillance – spoke of her admiration for Chen.

"He has done more than you could expect from any individual … Although he has experienced so much injustice and so many threats, he sticks to his beliefs. He is like a piece of jade: always smooth and warm."

Chen's lawyer Liu Weiguo said similarly that, despite his reservations about the outcome, "for the Chinese rights movement he has done more than enough. We can't ask him to do any more. Now he needs time to rest." , who precipitated the second phase of the diplomatic crisis by persuading Chen to abandon the idea of remaining in China, stood by his earlier position, telling Watts that "[Chen's] safety and freedom are the priority. Whether this is a good thing for the rights movement is secondary now."

None seemed to entertain any hope that the concessions granted to Chen and his family were signs of a wider easing. From Reuters:

"There won't be any big changes for us now that Chen Guangcheng has left. There are still many reasons to keep up control and stability preservation," , a Beijing human rights lawyer, said in a telephone interview, referring to the Communist Party's terms for controlling dissidents.

Jiang, a long-time campaigner for Chen's freedom, said he remained under house arrest, despite police officers' earlier promises that he would be released after Chen left.

"I still don't know when they're going to let up," Jiang said of the police restrictions. "This is no way forward, but especially with the 18th party congress, the high pressure will probably only grow, not decrease."

As in recent days, the most urgent concern was for Chen Kegui, Chen's nephew, who faces charges of intentional for attacking intruders into his father's home when Chen Guangcheng's escape was first discovered. From The Wall Street Journal:

Lawyers who have taken up the case of Mr. Chen's nephew said it wasn't clear how Mr. Chen's departure would affect the outcome.

"It's hard to say, since China never plays its cards in the proper order," said Chen Wuquan, a Guangzhou-based lawyer whose license was revoked by local authorities just as he was preparing to travel to meet with Chen Kegui this month.

"I think [the authorities] will be more strict in dealing with Chen Kegui," said Liang Xiaojun, another of the lawyers involved in the case. "They won't care about the international viewpoint."

While a number of lawyers volunteered to defend Chen Kegui, his family's eventual choice of Ding Qikui and Si Weijiang was rejected by local officials, supposedly at his own request. Chen Guangcheng told The Financial Times that similar obstruction had occurred before his own sentencing to four years in prison in 2006. "That this naked, shameless abuse can still happen again six years later …," he said, adding that he suspected Chen Kegui had been tortured to make him accept a public defender in place of the lawyers appointed by his family.

The longer term fear arising from Chen Guangcheng's departure is that he may, like others before him, be barred from re-entering China and find himself trapped and increasingly powerless abroad. Wang Dan argued in a recent New York Times op-ed, and Human Rights Watch's Phelim Kine told The Wall Street Journal on Saturday, that the Internet had changed the nature of political exile. Nevertheless, worry about Beijing's enthusiasm for exporting dissent muted Orville Schell's optimism about the state of Sino-US relations. From Asia Society:

The tactic of facilitating the most prominent critics of the Party to go into exile was something like the outsourcing of the manufacture process of a very polluting and unwelcomed home-based industry. There might initially be some complaints from dispossessed workers, but ultimately all, or almost all, would be forgotten, and the ongoing problem, if there were one, would be someone else's.

With dissidents like Fang Lizhi and Wei Jingsheng, Chinese officials learned that interest in the opinions of such activists and concern for their well-being quickly waned once they were abroad. The political oblivion usually followed rather rapidly. Moreover, a short while after they left China, these once-celebrated voices seemed to lose the requisite standing necessary to being taken seriously as authorities on Chinese affairs. The process of being exiled effectively turned them into political eunuchs. Far better, so the Chinese leadership seemed to have concluded, to endure a few days of high intensity bad press as a prelude to watching a dissident parked harmlessly and unheard in Queens, sink out of site. The alternative was to have someone like Liu Xiaobo stuck in a Chinese jail writing damning essays and winning Nobel Prizes. (At least so far, neither Liu nor the Chinese Government has shown any inclination to engage in such export tactics in his case.)

In his interview with NPR, Perry Link also described the history of this trend:

The record of dissidents leaving China has changed pretty dramatically over the last 23 years, since the Tiananmen Massacre. At the time, the Chinese government was angry to see people like Liu Binyan and Fang Lizhi and Fu Xiao Jun and many, many others who fled and congregated at the time at Princeton University, where I was teaching. There were about 25 of them. And the government didn't like that because they wanted them to come back. They were wanted and so on.

By now, I think we should say that the Chinese government's policy has changed about 180 degrees. Now, they're quite happy to see what they view as troublemakers like Chen Guangcheng be exiled, because the record over the last two decades of people who've come out has been that their influence inside China dramatically declines, and they feel frustrated. And their followers back in China feel frustrated.

So this exit of Chen Guangcheng is in one sense a win-win situation, because he and his family are now safe. And back in China they weren't and didn't feel that they were safe. And the Chinese government wins because it gets rid of a thorn in its side.

Link continued to describe Chen's rural background, a potent contrast with that of the sterotypical Chinese urban-intellectual dissident. Sui-Lee Wee and Terril Yue Jones explore similar ground in a profile at Reuters:

"It was his own feelings of discrimination from the time he was a kid that really got him interested in law," said , a China law expert and professor at New York University's law school. Cohen has become a supporter and confidante of Chen.

"He felt the community leaders, instead of making blind people an object of sympathy, treated them as an unneeded burden on the community, people who didn't pull their weight, people who claimed they shouldn't pay tax like able-bodied farmers.

"That was what started him off …."

"My first impression was I could be talking to a Chinese equivalent of Gandhi," Cohen recalled. "This is a man with a quiet charisma, considerable intelligence, very articulate and a steely determination."

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China Approves Google-Motorola Deal With Conditions

Posted: 20 May 2012 12:59 PM PDT

The decision was issued on Saturday:

Authorities in China have approved Google Inc.'s bid to buy phone maker Motorola Mobility, clearing the way for the $12.5 billion deal to close early next week.

The approval brings the Internet search giant closer to sealing its biggest acquisition ever. Buying Motorola allows Google to expand into manufacturing phones, tablet computers and other consumer devices for the first time. The deal also gives Google access to more than 17,000 Motorola patents. (Associated Press)

The full text of the decision is not yet available in English, although I'm sure that will be remedied by someone quickly. It only runs perhaps three pages in English (my estimate). Here's the link to the Chinese version.

Two things about the decision that are interesting. First, this is yet again another conditional M&A approval by the Ministry of Commerce. So far, we've only had one rejection (Coca-Cola's failed acquisition of Huiyuan) under the Anti-monopoly Law since 2008. However, conditional approvals seem to be getting more frequent. I'm not yet sure what that means, although it certainly does point to a more active MOFCOM which, if nothing else, is reminding everyone around the world that China must be taken seriously when cross-border M&A deals go down.

Second, the analysis of the mobile market by MOFCOM should provide lots of fodder for IT consultants and industry experts. I don't count myself as one, so I will not attempt to either support or criticize MOFCOM's take on the effects of the Google acquisition to China's domestic market.

That being said, here are a few of the issues raised by MOFCOM in its decision and, most importantly, the conditions it attached to the approval:

1. MOFCOM found that with Android, Google occupies a dominant market position. This is not a violation of the Anti-monopoly Law, but it is a key component of an analysis into whether a company is in fact using that position (or could do so in the future) to harm consumers. In its decision, MOFCOM took into account Android's market share, the reliance that mobile device manufacturers have on the operating system, Google's strong position with respect to technology and its financial position, and the relatively high market barriers to entry.

2. With Google's Motorola purchase, it would be able to treat other mobile device manufacturers non-preferentially, putting those manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage and distorting the market.

3. With respect to Motorola's patent portfolio, Google will be able to use those IPRs to force unreasonable licensing conditions, which could reduce competition and ultimately harm consumers.

No huge surprises there to anyone, I suspect. And here are the conditions that MOFCOM attached to the approval (this is NOT a translation, just a quick summary of key points):

1. Google shall provide Android on a "free and open basis" (免费和开放的基础).

2. In doing so, Google shall treat all original equipment manufacturers on a non-discriminatory basis.

3. Google shall continue to comply with Motorola's current fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory patent obligations.

4. Google shall commission an independent trustee (独立的监督受托人) to monitor and supervise the fulfillment of these obligations.

Conditions 1 & 2 are valid for five years, although Google can apply for modification or rescission if market conditions change. The trustee's report must be submitted to MOFCOM every six months. After the five-year period has expired, MOFCOM may still monitor the situation and make such decisions that are necessary given market conditions.

Someday I'd love to see what one of these trustee reports looks like.

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Mainland Netizens React to Ma Ying-jeou’s Inauguration: “Cornerstone of Reunification” To Be Laid?

Posted: 20 May 2012 12:50 PM PDT

Ma Ying-jeou has at least 15,000 supporters. Source: The China Post

On May 20, people all throughout China celebrated Show Me Your Love Day (520表白日). Single guys devised clever ways to win their crushes' hearts and wives rhetorically asked their husbands, "Honey, do you remember what day it is today?" Unfortunately for some absentminded guys, their response was "I know, Taiwan's presidential inauguration!"

Recently re-elected President Ma Ying-jeou was all business as he was sworn in yesterday as the 13th president of the Republic of China, realistically known as Taiwan. The inaugural speech emphasized domestic policy objectives of economic growth, social justice, cultural development, education, and combating climate change. Ma perhaps correctly stressed domestic development as a theme, because according to the Wall Street Journal, Ma is polling at voter support of between 15% to 30%, at least partly due to unrealized first term campaign promises and a recent scuffle over utilities costs and a proposed capital gains tax.

Mainlanders herald election as fostering unification

Understandably, comments from Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, focused on the other half of the speech: National identity and relations with the mainland. Most of the responses applauded Ma's position of seeking commonality and conciliation with China. @打油诗一郎_htm said, "We need peace across the Strait; good thing for us that Ma Ying-jeou gets four more years," while @msn-S proclaimed, "Mr. Ma will surely lay the cornerstone of reunification." @光明磊落佳木繁 openly declared his love for the president and his intention to "join the Kuomintang [Taiwan's ruling party]."

Many observed differences between officialdom in China and in Taiwan. @自由-想象力创造力生产力幽默感 noticed that Ma's speech was at least more substantive than the "thousands of empty slogans" of Chinese officials. @芄子爱粉se reminded us that while people in Taiwan can demand Ma step down over importing questionable American beef, not a single official seems to have apologized for the frequent food safety issues in China. @青春的敏SHAO quipped how badly Taiwan's economy must be doing, because the inaugural dinner only cost the equivalent of 340 Chinese Renminbi per head (about US$50).

Some Taiwanese made their distaste for Ma crystal clear

Of course, there were also those who were more cynical. @染香 dismissed Ma's speech as mere pretty words: "Talking is not the same as doing…if you believe in democracy, someone will dupe you with democracy." @铁王风云 said, "I would not want my children to become Taiwan's leader, someone who seems to drawn in the spit of everyone criticizing him."

Taiwan's power of example

Some saw a deeper symbolic meaning in the fact that Taiwan just inaugurated another national leader, chosen by the people directly at the ballot box. @李昕V commented:

"Unification is not a question of nationalism, but an asymmetry of political system and democracy. If you are Taiwanese, you wouldn't want to revert to an authoritarian, undemocratic, corrupt and degenerate society…as long as China's political system isn't changed, peaceful unification is a joke. And if Ma Ying-jeou takes his people back to such an undemocratic society, he would go against basic conscience and will be a sinner to Chinese civilization."

This was an interesting choice of words. A "sinner to Chinese civilization" (中华民族的罪人) was the precise label given by the Chinese government to Taiwanese independence sympathizers, including Ma Ying-jeou's predecessors, former presidents Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-hui.

Reactions in Taiwan

Why settle for venting anonymously behind a computer screen, when you can go down to the park and throw eggs at a larger-than-life picture of the man himself (see video below)?

But perhaps Ma has a critic closer to home to worry about. Netizens picked up on a video of Ma skipping into the Presidential Office, leaving First Lady Christine Chow a few paces behind him. After catching up to the President, she asked him sternly, "What is wrong with you?"

Apparently some people didn't get the Show Me Your Love Day memo.

The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay Twitter feed) – 2012-05-20

Posted: 19 May 2012 08:59 PM PDT

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Chinese Activist's Departure Brings New Questions

Posted: 20 May 2012 09:05 AM PDT

By JOSH CHIN in Beijing and LAURA KUSISTO in New York

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng's departure from China raises difficult questions ranging from the fate of his extended family and allies to his ability to spur change at home, even as he enjoyed his first taste of freedom in seven years following his arrival in the U.S. over the weekend.
Mr. Chen, his wife and their two children touched down in the U.S. on Saturday evening after a sudden rush to the Beijing International Airport that ended weeks of speculation over his fate and concluded one of the tensest episodes in U.S.-China relations in several years.
"It's as the Chinese saying goes: 'Nothing in the world is difficult for one who sets his mind to it,'" the activist said Saturday after hobbling out of a white van, his right foot in a cast, to cheers and camera flashes at a graduate student housing complex near New York University, where he has been offered a fellowship. Standing next to NYU law professor Jerome Cohen, who helped negotiate his exit, Mr. Chen proceeded to thank the diplomats and "many friends" who had aided him to that point.
But continued official restrictions on some of those friends in China, and difficulties faced by lawyers trying to defend his nephew against charges of attempted murder, added a bittersweet note to Mr. Chen's escape. "We can see that Shandong is continuing to exact revenge on my family," he said, referring to his home province in eastern China.
The rights of my nephew and even his lawyers cannot be protected," he said.
"But fortunately, the central government has promised me more than once that it plans to conduct a thorough investigation into this sort of illegal activity in Shandong. I hope everybody will continue to monitor this situation."
One of those facing pressure in the wake of Mr. Chen's departure, Beijing-based human-rights lawyer and Chen confidante Jiang Tianyong, told The Wall Street Journal from the southern city of Guangzhou on Sunday that public-security officials had warned him he would be followed and his home subject to surveillance were he to return to Beijing.
"I pointed out that Chen Guangcheng was already gone and they said, 'The situation still hasn't been resolved,'" Mr. Jiang said.
Another friend of Mr. Chen's, activist Zeng Jinyan, discussed having recently returned from a meditation retreat following a period of house arrest earlier this month but quickly asked to end the call after the conversation turned to Mr. Chen.
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept interviews right now," she said.
"Maybe in the future."
The White House hailed Mr. Chen's departure from Beijing over the weekend, with Ben Rhodes, a deputy national-security adviser, saying the administration was "pleased with the efforts" made by the U.S. and Chinese governments "to reach this resolution."
In a brief interview with The Wall Street Journal on Saturday before they left China, Mr. Chen's wife, Yuan Weijing, said they had left the Beijing hospital where they had been staying without any interaction with Chinese officials.
She said they received passports shortly after arriving at the airport.
"They came in and told us to get everything together at 12:30 and we left at 1 o'clock," she said.
Ms. Yuan said U.S. Embassy officials were nearby at the airport.
The family's arrival in the U.S. brings to a close a nearly monthlong period of uncertainty for Mr. Chen and the governments of both China and the U.S.
Mr. Chen became the center of an international standoff after he escaped 19 months of home confinement in a daring nighttime breakout and eventually made his way to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, where he stayed for six days.
Mr. Chen's departure from China leaves open whether he will be as effective a human-rights campaigner outside the country, where his reach will be limited due to tight restrictions on media and the Internet there. Human-rights activists say China often encourages or tolerates dissident flights abroad to reduce their ability to stir trouble at home.
While acknowledging that some high-profile Chinese dissidents in the past have seen their influence wane after leaving China, Phelim Kine, a senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said he was optimistic Mr. Chen could still have an impact given the ease of communication through the Internet and social media. "We are at a new point of interconnectivity in terms of the ways in which people from outside can still have influence inside the Chinese firewall," he said.
Still, Mr. Kine was adamant that the activist's leaving China shouldn't be considered a complete victory. "This isn't the time for [the U.S. and other governments] to stop and let out a sigh of relief," he said.
"There are relatives, friends and supporters of Chen Guangcheng who are very much vulnerable to reprisals." The U.S. needed to continue to pressure China to live up to its promise to investigate and hold accountable local authorities in Shandong who kept Mr. Chen and his family locked up without charge, Mr. Kine said, since the failure to do so "gives a green light to continue those abuses against others."
Mr. Chen's nephew, Chen Kegui, faces charges of attempted murder in Yinan county in Shandong after injuring local officials with a knife.
His family says Chen Kegui reacted in self-defense when officials and heavies burst into their home looking for Mr. Chen.
Attorneys who have attempted to visit him have been turned away by local officials, they said, adding that they were told that Chen Kegui had already been provided with legal representation.
Officials in Yinan haven't returned calls for comment.
Officials at China's Foreign Ministry couldn't be reached for comment.
In a statement, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said Mr. Chen "has applied for study in the United States via normal channels in line with the law."
Lawyers who have taken up the case of Mr. Chen's nephew said it wasn't clear how Mr. Chen's departure would affect the outcome.
"It's hard to say, since China never plays its cards in the proper order," said Chen Wuquan, a Guangzhou-based lawyer whose license was revoked by local authorities just as he was preparing to travel to meet with Chen Kegui earlier this month.
"I think [the authorities] will be more strict in dealing with Chen Kegui," said Liang Xiaojun, another of the lawyers involved in the case.
"They won't care about the international viewpoint."
Also unclear, supporters said, was whether Mr. Chen would someday be allowed to return to China, something he has said he intends to do.
"For him to come back, there would need to be changes to the environment here," said Mr. Jiang, the human-rights lawyer.
"If things loosen up, I can see him coming back. But if things continue the way they are now, with the stability maintenance organs acting in increasingly illegal ways, it's difficult to say."
A self-taught "barefoot lawyer" who has been blind since childhood, Mr. Chen is one of China's most celebrated rights activists, though he has said he doesn't seem himself as a dissident.
Celebrated early on in his career for defending the rights of disabled people, he ran afoul of local authorities around his home village of Dongshigu, near the city of Linyi in Shandong province, for protesting forced abortions and sterilizations under the auspices of China's one-child policy.
In 2006 he was sentenced to four years in prison for charges including intentional destruction of property and gathering crowds to obstruct traffic—charges that his supporters say were trumped up by local officials. Mr. Chen had been expected to remain in China under an earlier deal between Beijing and Washington but the activist changed course hours after leaving the U.S. Embassy on May 2, saying he didn't believe his family could be safe in China and asking to be allowed to go to the U.S.
"Chen Guangcheng and his family finding safety and freedom in the U.S., of course it makes me very happy," Mr. Jiang said Sunday.
"But in another sense, from the perspective of a rights defender, the idea that someone who never broke the law in China, who only wanted to advance rule of law in China, is not able to live here safely—it's a complicated feeling."

Facebook, China and Innovation

Posted: 20 May 2012 06:50 AM PDT

As made its stock market debut on Friday morning, and with observers wondering if and when the company will attempt to enter the China market, The New Yorker's stepped back from the flurry of Chinese state and commentary and asked whether "the political system that has nurtured China's rise may also be limiting its next step":

Beyond the snark and the state media, a more earnest discussion has gathered force. Despite years of investment and official injunctions to advance Chinese technology, China has yet to produce a brand or original tech product with a fraction of the global influence of Facebook or Apple. Chen Yongdong, a Shanghai-based technology writer, adapted the title of a famous Chinese poem for an essay he called "Raising My Head to Look Up to Facebook; Lowering My Head to Think About Its Chinese Counterparts." He wrote: "If you don't have , are you not going to be laughed at by the industry, and by the world?"

In all likelihood, China is approaching the end of its run as the world's low-skilled workshop. There are fewer workers, and they are pursuing more income and skills; Vietnam and other neighbors are cheaper. The larger problem is existential: The nation that so often reminds the world that it invented printing, paper, gunpowder, and the compass is exceedingly uncomfortable about how far back it has to reach to name its world-beating inventions. China has excelled in several pockets of innovation (genomics and nanotechnology, for example) but those are the exception; Chinese technology is now best known for "process innovation"—reducing the cost of producing, say, low-end mobile phones for Huawei—and for the distinctly Chinese term, "re-innovation," which involves making something simpler or cheaper than the original.

Even successful Chinese Internet companies, such as Tencent and Alibaba, are respected for their business achievements, not for their original insights. The obstacles are not a mystery: The government has failed to protect intellectual property or promote small- and medium-sized businesses with good ideas, to name a couple of factors.

Imagine, for a moment, the Chinese version of the Facebook story: A no-name undergrad in the Tsinghua University computer-science department gains notoriety for a high-profile prank that makes the university concerned about its digital security; instead of getting expelled, he starts a company, drops out, attracts prominent investors despite ignoring powerful players in the field, is invited to meet the President of the country, continues expanding, goes public, and makes billions. Impossible—for all kinds of reasons (a Chinese student who toys with a university network might not be enrolled by the end of the day), but the most vexing question may be, as an editorial in Nature once put it, "whether a truly vibrant scientific culture is possible without a more widespread societal commitment to free expression."

The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report, however, claims that China can still teach Facebook a thing or two:

With traffic quickly migrating from personal computers to mobile devices, all of the big Chinese Internet companies are pushing hard into mobile, but some with more success than others. Though Mark Zuckerberg is well aware of the mobile challenge, he might think about following in Tencent's footsteps, and instead of working on a more streamlined Facebook app or some grander mobile operating system, make a new mobile product from scratch.

China's largest internet conglomerate, Tencent, launched a new mobile chat service last year called Weixin.

On top of its mobile chat function, Weixin has integrated audio and photo sharing and other quirky features, one of which allows users to shake their phone and start up a conversation with strangers shaking their phone in the area. According to the Chinese media it's also testing a new circles feature, that has the uncanny power to automatically categorize friends and contacts based on how a person knows them, and even throws in a few similar strangers for good measure.

…

As Kaifu Lee, former head of China for points out, what has set Weixin apart is it has left completely behind the "baggage" of being a PC product.

"Facebook's client was not inventive from the get go for the mobile experience, [it was] just aiming for functional compatibility with desktop version. That may on the positive side it will be more friendly to the desktop client, but the downside is it's not optimized for mobile," he said.

See also speculation in Forbes on what impact Facebook's IPO will have on China's top social network, .

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It’s Not Just Yang Rui

Posted: 20 May 2012 05:09 AM PDT

Is Yang Rui a xenophobe? Wait, back up. The sort of people who read this blog will almost certainly have heard about Yang Rui, the anchor of CCTV International's program "Dialogue," and his postings on Weibo and the shit-storm that ensued, but if you haven't, you can bring yourself up to speed by reading WSJ Realtime, James Fallows, and ChinaGeeks' takes on the whole sorry situation, and Bill Bishop's run-down on Sinocism. Or you can get the same effect more quickly and less harmfully by ramming your head into the wall a few times as hard as you can; it's your call.

Now that we're all on the same page: is Yang Rui a xenophobe? Has CCTV picked a racist to head up one of the highest-profile programs in its bid for international media relevance? The WSJ post translates one of Yang's Weibo postings — the one that started the whole mess — but there is more to Yang's outburst than that, and since I failed Mind Reading 101 in college and have not got access to the inside of Yang Rui's head, it seems fairest to let him speak for himself via his Weibo updates, which I've translated below as fairly and directly as I can.

公安部要清扫洋垃圾：抓洋流氓，保护无知少女，五道口和三里屯是重灾区；斩首洋蛇头，美欧失业者来中国圈钱贩卖人口，妖言惑众鼓励移民；识别洋间谍，找个中国女人同居，职业是搜集情报，以游客为名义为日本韩国和美欧测绘地图，完善GPS；赶走洋泼妇，关闭半岛电视台驻京办，让妖魔化中国的闭嘴滚蛋
— 5月16日 06:55

The Ministry of Public Security must clean out the foreign trash: catch foreign lowlifes and protect innocent girls (Wudaokou and Sanlitun are the worst-affected areas). Eliminate foreign human traffickers,1 unemployed Americans and Europeans who come to China to make money by selling people abroad, misleading the public and encouraging them to emigrate. Learn to recognize the foreign spies who find a Chinese girl to shack up with while they make a living compiling intelligence reports, posing as tourists in order to do mapping surveys and improve GPS data for Japan, South Korea, the United States and Europe.2 We kicked out that shrill foreign bitch3 and shut down Al Jazeera's office in Beijing; we should make everyone who demonizes China shut up and fuck off.4
— May 16, 6:55 AM

我十年前就碰到过中文暴粗口的美国人。扫洋垃圾必要，但也要警惕排外情绪，警惕义和拳运动的变异。反省一下自己，许多中国人的种族歧视也很严重，歧视自己，有自卑感，忙崇白人，对其他有色人种颇有微词。
— 5月18日 14:23

[In reference to Oleg Vedernikov] I first came across Americans who were foul-mouthed in Chinese ten years ago. It's important to sweep away all the foreign trash, but we must be cautious of xenophobia and new variations on the Boxer Uprising.5 We should reflect on our own shortcomings. Many Chinese people are seriously racist: they look down on themselves and have a sense of inferiority; they bow and scrape before white people while being more than a little dismissive of colored peoples.
— May 18, 2:23 pm

说到中国如何和平崛起，如何二十年后综合实力接近美国。越琢磨越觉得TMD和平二字被人利用了。我们忍气吞声埋头建设尽量与邻为善，结果恶邻蚕食鲸吞我们的岛礁，我们韬光养晦，他们以为我们不作为怕惹事，于是兴风作浪！其实，和平崛起也必须声明不要妨碍我和平，别折腾我，不然老子不客气！
— 5月18日 23:38

So far as the "peaceful rise" of China and how China will be similar to the United States in terms of overall power in another 20 years: the more I think about it, the more I feel like the word "peaceful" is just being f-ing exploited by people. We keep quiet and swallow our anger; we keep our heads down and build our country; we do everything we can to treat our neighbors well, and our malicious neighbors encroach on our islands and reefs one nibble and bite at a time. We choose to hide our capabilities and bide our time, and they take that as a sign that we're afraid to start things and as license for them to run rampant! Peaceful rise or not, we must make a statement: don't try to break our peace; don't try to mess with us; or it'll be no more Mr. Nice Guy!
— May 18, 11:38 pm

清扫洋垃圾，华尔街日报这么在意？暗示我排外，扯吧！在华的外国人渣不少，优秀的友好的和尊守中国法律的外国人也很多。甄别一下，打扫卫生，理性相处，中国人是非常好客的，有些好客得有些媚外，丧失了人格和国格。周末愉快，buddies, have fun on weekend — 5月18日 23:47

Why does the Wall Street Journal care so much about cleaning up foreign trash? Implying that I'm xenophobic? Bullshit! There's no shortage of foreign scum in China, and there are also plenty of outstanding, friendly foreigners who respect Chinese law. So filter them out, clean things up, and let's coexist rationally. Chinese people are extremely hospitable — sometimes so hospitable that they worship foreigners to the detriment of their own personal and national nature. Have a good weekend, buddies, have fun on weekend
— May 18, 11:47 pm

看到菲律宾军人荷枪实弹逼着中国渔民脱下上衣，在烈日下暴晒，若非海监船及时赶到制止他们的辱华行为，这些在自己的领海附近捕鱼的中国人又得被扣，罚个倾家荡产，有的中国渔民甚至直接被杀，沉尸灭迹。这些西方媒体不报道，我说些真相，他们指责我是monologue, 意思是独白，不是对话Dialogue.
— 5月19日 00:37

Philippine soldiers forced Chinese fishermen at gunpoint to take off their shirts under the baking sun. If the [Chinese] maritime patrol boat hadn't gotten there in time to stop their humiliation of China, these Chinese people who had been fishing near their own country's territorial waters might have been arrested, fined everything they owned — some of them might even have been killed and thrown into the ocean to hide the evidence. Western media doesn't report that. I tell the truth, and they accuse me of engaging in monologue, not "Dialogue."
— May 19: 12:37 am

我们搁置争议，越南大肆开发，组织各界人士登岛劳军，要把南海据为己有。海洋局的专家说，河内在玩圈地运动，中海油的钻井台立足未稳，越南就组织几十艘船搞狼群驱赶，我们军方不在，中海油的弟兄们只好撤！败退！越南还故意鼓励渔民挑衅中方，一旦被抓，就煽动反华和民族仇恨
— 5月19日 01:20

Setting aside the controversy for a moment, Vietnam is stepping up development on a large scale and mobilizing people to settle islands and ramp up troops so that they can make the South China Sea their own. An expert from the State Oceanic Administration says Hanoi is pursuing a policy of encirclement: it doesn't yet have enough of a footing to drill a well, so the government organized several dozen ships to drive away other vessels. Our navy isn't there, so our brothers in CNOOC have no choice but to pull out! To leave in defeat! Vietnam has also deliberately encouraged fishermen to provoke Chinese [vessels]; if they get arrested, Vietnam will fan the flames of anti-Chinese and racist sentiment.6
— May 19, 1:20 am

求证：菲外长罗萨里奥可能持美国护照，是美籍人士，一个月来他烈士一样的激烈言辞，想必认为他的祖国美国会无条件保护他客居的菲律宾？同理，2008年格鲁吉亚总统萨卡什维利下令军队镇压邻近俄罗斯的阿布哈兹和南奥塞梯自治省，他毕业于哈佛大学，美国律师出身。结果他败得很惨，俄不尿他，美不理他！
— 5月19日 08:47

Seeking confirmation: Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario may hold a US passport and US nationalist. For the past month he's been delivering impassioned speeches like a wannabe martyr — doubtlessly because he thinks his motherland the US will unconditionally protect his right to live abroad in the Philippines? In 2008, using the same reasoning, the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili ordered his troops to suppress the nearby Russian autonomous regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. He graduated from Harvard and worked as a lawyer in the US. In the end, he lost badly: Russia paid no attention and America ignored him!"
— May 19, 8:47 am

(I chose the last post as the ending point because everything after this is written in light of Charlie's petition to get Yang Rui fired. Up until this point, Yang was carrying on, except for the mention of the WSJ post, more or less under the impression that he was talking to his usual audience, so these posts may be a fairer representation of his thoughts.)

So is Yang a xenophobic racist? Yes and no — well, mostly yes, really — but "nationalist" might be a more accurate term. (Yang uses the word himself in one of his more recent posts.) The racism and xenophobia are subordinate to the nationalism in a way that will be familiar to anyone who's spent much time on the Chinese internet. None of what Yang Rui said is particularly beyond the pale for nationalist discourse online. It's slightly surprising to hear it coming from a public figure supposedly involved in international dialogue, but frankly the only really astonishing part has been the surprise at his outburst.

I've translated Yang's Weibo posts above as fairly as I can, but in the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I have never found Yang's show to be balanced, intelligent, or intellectually honest. I last paid attention to "Dialogue" in spring 2003 and distinctly remember an episode from that period — a time when the Beijing government was actively lying about and covering up SARS fatalities, and Chinese and foreigners alike were eager for any scrap of accurate, unbiased information — in which Yang spent most of the show badgering a foreign epidemiologist into saying that SARS could possibly be of foreign origin, as if that was what really mattered. This was pretty typical of the discussion, as I recall — almost exclusively point-scoring, zero-sum, yes-but-one-Rod-Blagojevich-equals-one-Bo-Xilai whataboutery.

It may be embarrassing from a soft-power standpoint to have an allegedly cosmopolitan TV host speaking this way in a public forum, but Yang is basically a human weathervane with a bad William F. Buckley impression, and he wouldn't be saying these things if he didn't think the political winds were at his back. His rant showed up in the context of a lot of other nationalist wharrgarbl about the Philippines and Vietnam — topics that have been notably prominent in the media recently as part of an overall campaign to unify public opinion in the face of what can only be described as "interesting times." Some aspects of this (particularly the recent hyping of videos showing a drunken British would-be rapist and a jerk-off Russian cellist mouthing off in Chinese) have been stunningly successful; others (particularly the Beijing Daily's repeated bullseye shots at its own feet) have been less so.

It's hard to see Yang suffering any serious repercussions from this.7 His opinions are not new or rare or particularly extreme in the context of fenqing nationalism, and if the current climate is any indication, I suspect we probably will have a lot more of this stuff to look forward to in the coming months.

  1. The WSJ's translation renders this literally, as "Cut off the foreign snake heads," but "snakehead" is a term used for human traffickers, similar to "coyote" w/r/t Mexicans entering the US. ↩
  2. Boy, has he ever got my number. ↩
  3. I threw out the question of how to translate 泼妇 to a table of translators and interpreters yesterday afternoon. Consensus was "bitch," since terms like "shrew," "scold," "blowen," "harridan," etc. are no longer in common usage, but the native speakers of Chinese — both female — said that it actually struck them as nastier than "bitch" in this context, since it is possible to be a reasonable bitch but not a reasonable 泼妇. ↩
  4. 滚 on its own is a rude-but-common term meaning "piss off." 滚蛋 is more in "fuck off" territory. ↩
  5. Is it too late to make "The Fists of Righteous Harmony" the standard translation for this? Because it's more accurate and way cooler. ↩
  6. Slightly ropier on this translation as I'm not entirely clear on what incident he's talking about here. Corrections very welcome. ↩
  7. From CCTV, that is. One hopes that people invited to appear on his show will think twice before doing so, and ask themselves if this is really a person they want to be associated with by the entire Internet-using foreign population of China. ↩

NYT: Inside the Princeling “Spoils System”

Posted: 20 May 2012 02:25 AM PDT

The New York Times dives into the upper echelons of China's political elite, where relatives of party officials have enriched themselves within an "ecosystem of crony capitalism" that "poses a fundamental challenge to the legitimacy of the Communist Party":

As the over continues to reverberate, the authorities here are eager to paint Mr. Bo, a fallen leader who was one of 25 members of China's ruling Politburo, as a rogue operator who abused his power, even as his family members accumulated a substantial fortune.

But evidence is mounting that the relatives of other current and former senior officials have also amassed vast wealth, often playing central roles in businesses closely entwined with the state, including those involved in finance, energy, domestic security, telecommunications and entertainment. Many of these so-called also serve as middlemen to a host of global companies and wealthy tycoons eager to do business in China.

"Whenever there is something profitable that emerges in the economy, they'll be at the front of the queue," said Minxin Pei, an expert on China's leadership and professor of government at Claremont McKenna College in California. "They've gotten into private equity, state-owned enterprises, natural resources — you name it."

For example, Wen Yunsong, the son of Prime Minister , heads a state-owned company that boasts that it will soon be Asia's largest satellite communications operator. President 's son, Hu Haifeng, once managed a state-controlled firm that held a monopoly on security scanners used in China's airports, shipping ports and subway stations. And in 2006, Feng Shaodong, the son-in-law of , the party's second-ranking official, helped Merrill Lynch win a deal to arrange the $22 billion public listing of the giant state-run bank I.C.B.C., in what became the world's largest initial public stock offering.

The foreign press has been reporting on China's princelings and the challenge they pose to the CCP since well before the Bo Xilai scandal erupted, with a number of China's incoming generation of top leaders (including president-in-waiting Xi Jinping) descending from Communist Party elite. Still, the Bo scandal turned the princeling issue into a "U.S. media phenomenon," especially in light of already existing reports of son 's lavish and conspicuous lifestyle, writes Jay Newton-Small for TIME's Global Spin blog:

China has changed in the years since the revolution when everyone was expected to live simply. Bo Guagua and his contemporaries are everything the Communist Party stalwarts have sought not to be: frivolous, glittering, pampered, privileged. And while Bo Guagua has dropped off the map, abandoning his $3,000-a-month Boston luxury apartment for something in an undisclosed location, there is no shortage of princelings to focus on. There are hundreds if not thousands of them in the U.S. alone. "The reality is [there is] a very large number of Chinese officials, not only of highest levels but throughout the system, who send their children abroad whenever they can," says Lieberthal.

The American media aren't the only ones to find the princelings fascinating. Indeed, it is a much more crucial development that Chinese blogs were onto Bo Guagua even before the scandal enveloped his parents. They were the first to track his glitzy existence, for example, writing about Bo Guagua allegedly using his red Ferrari to pick up the daughter of former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman for an event. The same blogs follow former People's Liberation Army marshal Ye Jianying's granddaughter Ye Mingzi's latest fashion design or former Vice Premier Wang Li's granddaughter Wan Baobao's jewelry designs. They also traffic in unsubstantiated speculation (like whether the daughter of a prominent Chinese leader, attending Harvard under an assumed name, dated basketball phenom Jeremy Lin).

Singling out Bo Guagua may be the regime's shot across the bow to other young princelings: keep a low profile or you could end up like him. But surely Bo Guagua is only the first installment in what promises to be a long and dramatic soap opera. It's hard to imagine that none of the princelings want to be the Paris Hilton of China. As the story unfolds, the test will be how the Communist Party handles it. The trouble is that money and what it can flaunt is central to Chinese society nowadays. "China itself is very much focused on making money as a core goal of people throughout that system," says Lieberthal. "In fact, there are complaints in China all the time that people are worried that the focus is so strong that it isn't properly balanced by ethical considerations. The ethic is making money. And if that ethic isn't tempered, you may have a rapidly growing economy but you've got real problems."

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Pentagon: China’s Military Getting Stronger

Posted: 20 May 2012 12:43 AM PDT

In an annual report to Congress on military and security developments in China, released on Friday, The detailed the significant investment in and modernization of China's military as its influence continues to expand in the regional and global security arena. From the report's executive summary, via The New York Times:

THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA (PRC) is pursuing a long-term, comprehensive military modernization program designed to improve the capacity of China's armed forces to fight and win "local wars under conditions of informatization," or high-intensity, information-centric regional military operations of short duration. China's leaders view modernization of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) as an essential component of their strategy to take advantage of what they perceive to be a "window of strategic opportunity" to advance China's national development during the first two decades of the 21st century. During this period, China's leaders are placing a priority on fostering a positive external environment to provide the PRC with the strategic space to focus on economic growth and development. At the same time, Chinese leaders seek to maintain peace and stability along their country's periphery, expand their diplomatic influence to facilitate access to markets, capital, and resources, and avoid direct confrontation with the United States and other countries. This strategy has led to an expansion of China's presence in regions all over the world, creating new and expanding economic and diplomatic interests.

As these interests have grown, and as China has assumed new roles and responsibilities in the international community, China's military modernization is, to an increasing extent, focusing on investments in military capabilities that would enable China's armed forces to conduct a wide range of missions, including those farther from China. Even as the PLA is contending with this growing array of missions, preparing for contingencies in the Taiwan Strait remains the principal focus and driver of much of China's military investment. In this context, over the past year, the PLA continued to build the capabilities and develop the doctrine it considers necessary to deter Taiwan from declaring independence; to deter, delay, and deny effective U.S. intervention in a potential cross-Strait conflict; and to defeat Taiwan forces in the event of hostilities.

In a commentary on Friday, Xinhua News rejected the report as "ridden with speculative descriptions" and claimed it reflected America's Cold War mentality:

The report said China "periodically acts more assertively in pursuit of its strategic priorities," making an apparent reference to China's firm stance on protecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity in disputes concerning the .

As a champion of good-neighbor , China has been aspiring for peaceful development. When it comes to issues of sovereignty and national security, China stands firm just like any other member of the international community. What's the fault in that?

The Pentagon also expresses doubts about the transparency of China's defense spending, saying that estimating China's actual military expenditures "is difficult because of poor accounting transparency and China's still incomplete transition from a command economy."

Making such a statement, the report apparently ignores the fact that China has been publicizing its annual defense budget since 1978, which was included in the government's budget report to the National People's Congress every year. And since 1995, China has been releasing the complete data on defense spending in its annual White Paper on China's National Defense.

…

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was right when she said in a speech at the Naval Academy last month that "Today's China is not the Soviet Union. We are not on the brink of a new Cold War in Asia … That requires adjustments in thinking and approaches on both sides."

Given the fact that China-U.S. ties have evolved beyond bilateral scope and now bear global significance, it's highly advisable for the United States to refrain from hurling mud at China and abandon such counterproductive Cold War-style practices of issuing annual reports on China's military and continuing arms sales to Taiwan.

See also previous CDT coverage of China's military, including a February report that China's military spending will double by 2015 and outpace the rest of the Asia Pacific region combined.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012

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