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Blogs » Politics » The Specter of the Cultural Revolution

The Specter of the Cultural Revolution

Posted: 22 May 2012 10:23 PM PDT

In the New York Times, author Lijia Zhang calls for a full accounting of the Cultural Revolution and says that the country risks repeating history without major reforms: "more democracy, rule of law, transparency, checks on power and a decentralized power structure":

The began 46 years ago this month with Chairman Mao's "May 16 Notification" and ended 10 years later with at least half a million people dead from torture, or suicide. This misguided movement tore apart China's social fabric, touching all of us in one way or another.

A childhood friend of mine accidentally broke a porcelain statue of Chairman Mao. His mother was blamed, beaten and humiliated at public gatherings. She eventually went mad. My grandfather committed suicide at the height of the movement, terrified that his job as a grain dealer would make him a target of the roving bands of Red Guards who might persecute any merchant at any time because of a "capitalist" livelihood. My grandfather once said that he lived like a "bird startled by the mere twang of a bowstring."

Such stories were all too common, yet we have not come to terms with their long-term effects. Until the Chinese leadership confronts the Cultural Revolution head-on, its ghosts will continue to haunt the nation.

In 1978, two years after the chaos ended, the Communist Party declared the Cultural Revolution a disaster and effectively banned any further public discussion. To this day, the movement's excesses are glossed over in schools, and books on the period are subject to strict censorship. The topic is often blocked in Chinese on the Web. China has never had a full accounting of how and what went wrong.

Read more about the Cultural Revolution via CDT.

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Photo: Hobbyist, by Land of no cheese

Posted: 22 May 2012 09:48 PM PDT

Chinese Version of “The Apprentice” Destroys Another Young Person’s Confidence

Posted: 22 May 2012 08:45 PM PDT

We've seen this train wreck before. Contestant arrives full of outward confidence; contestant claims prowess in a foreign (non-Chinese) language; contestant is mercilessly criticized and suffers emotional breakdown.

The latest episode of "Only You" has aired on Tianjin television, and the results are not pretty (see video at bottom). "Only You" (非你莫属) is an "Apprentice"-style reality show where twelve Chinese company managers, sitting in twelve thrones encircling a stage, interview and evaluate one job applicant at a time. Successful applicants are offered jobs on the spot, while unsuccessful ones go home.

Recent contestant Guo Jie, a 32-year-old Shanxi native who has spent the last ten years in France, stepped into a curious ambush shortly after he appeared on stage. When host Zhang Shaogang asked Mr. Guo about the quality of his French, Guo proclaimed it "very good." But when judge Wen Yi tried to test Guo, she asked him something like the following: "Pouvez-vous me dire le differente marketing sur voyager niche entre le Chine and France?" According to a source who speaks advanced French, this "makes almost no sense." Translated into English, it means: "Can you tell me the different marketing on niche traveling between China and France?"

Judge Wen Yi scrutinizes contestant Guo's degree

Guo seemed flabbergasted, claiming not to understand the question. But Wen Yi was having none of it, telling the host: "I think, given he's lived in France for four years, his French is…," Wen Yi didn't finish her sentence, but the negative implication was clear.

It got worse from there, as the host and the judges peppered Guo with questions intended to assess his understanding of French cinema and sociology, both of which he claimed to have studied. Reading through Guo's credentials, Wen Yi concluded that the young job-seeker had exaggerated them, pointing out (incorrectly) that his purported Master's degree in international trade was, in fact, a "zhuan ke," the approximate equivalent of an Associate's degree in the United States.

That was too much for Guo, who first reacted with disbelief, then swooned, then fell to the floor. Host Zhao, holding Guo by the lapel, asked, "Are you acting?"

The studio audience, aghast at Guo's tumble

Netizens on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, were outraged. They called judge Wen Yi and host Zhang Shaogang a choice variety of epithets that we'll leave to reader imagination. They also labeled both host and judge "cold-blooded" for their apparent indifference after Guo collapsed.

Following his inevitable elimination from contention, Guo maintained his calm backstage, describing how the pressure made him feel he was going to collapse. The very public setback, he continued, was "an especially big blow to my life–what am I going to do?" He vowed to spend his career "to do some things that prove [I'm qualified]."

Flipping the Confucian script

A generation gap separates many netizens from the host and twelve judges, who appear to expect a good deal of deference from their applicants. Many children of the 80′s refuse to follow that protocol. Young Chinese tend to be more individualistic, but more importantly, with a labor force that is starting to shrink and rising wages, many feel they don't need to beg for jobs any more.

In January, contestant Liu Lili had to defend her character

Just this January, "Only You" contestant Liu Lili, faced withering treatment on the same show, in large part because she refused to show deference to her interviewers. Netizens, many of them hailing from the same demographic, rushed to her defense as well.

Lies and exaggerations, all around

But what really raised netizen ire was Wen Yi's seeming hypocrisy. Allegedly, a search of Wen's LinkedIn profile reveals that her French is intermediate, and her degree earned in France is inferior to Guo's. If true, she was unqualified to criticize Guo, and her unwillingness on camera to say so represented another instance of authority run amok.

For his part, Guo was not a whirling dervish of fluency. TLN's French-speaking source contends neither his nor Wen Yi's accents are particularly good, and Guo's answer was "not quite babble, but getting there."

Fang Zhouzi (@方舟子), well known for his efforts to find and expose fraud and plagiarism, reluctantly weighed in. He wrote, "A lot of overseas students who've studied abroad in France want me to expose the fraud of the 'Only You' judge Wen Yi…I don't speak French, [so] I shouldn't say anything. But I have relatives who study abroad in France, who say…a French BAC-5 (the fifth year of university) is about equivalent to another country's Master's degree. When Wen Yi said it was a 'zhuan ke,' no wonder the applicant fainted."

Even the diplomatic corps got involved. The French Embassy in China (@法国驻华使馆) used its official Weibo account to provide a friendly reminder of its degree system, which backs up Guo's original claim.

Guo's faint, or feint?

Guo could not believe his degree was being questioned

So was Guo "acting," as host Zhang suspected, when he lost his balance? Many netizens felt he was not, having themselves faced the pressure of a demanding authority figure. As @损残年 described, "When I was in junior high school…I had to stand and answer my father's study questions…several times, although I didn't faint, I always felt that my brain was lacking blood and wanted to kneel or lie down." But @跃起的童真 felt Zhang should have "confidently and frankly faced everything," rather than losing his cool.

Who knows how most of us would have faced down the barely-concealed contempt that the team at "Only You" continues to visit up their young guests? Tea Leaf Nation would advise future job-seekers to steer clear of the show and simply apply for a job the old fashioned way. Liberty, equality and fraternity? Let's just settle for dignity.

Bear in a China Shop

Posted: 22 May 2012 08:29 PM PDT

Against a swelling chorus of bearism, Arthur Kroeber argues that China is likely to continue its economic ascent. But, he writes, although "China will likely surpass the United States as the world's top economy … until it solves its fairness problem, it will remain a second-rate society." From Foreign Policy:

No question, China has many problems. Years of one-sided investment-driven growth have created obvious excesses and overcapacity. A weaker global economy since the 2008 financial crisis and rapidly rising labor cost at home have slowed China's vaunted export machine. Meanwhile, a massive is slowly deflating, and the latest economic data is discouraging. Real growth in GDP slowed to an annualized rate of less than 7 percent in the first quarter of 2012, and April saw a sharp slowdown in industrial output, electricity production, bank lending, and property transactions. Is China's legendary economy in serious trouble?

Not just yet. The odds are that China will navigate these shoals and continue to grow at a fairly rapid pace of around 7 percent a year for the remainder of the decade, overtaking the to become the world's biggest economy around 2020. That's a lot slower than the historical average of 10 percent, but still solid. Considerably less certain, however, is whether China's secretive and corrupt Communist Party can make this growth equitable, inclusive, and fair. Rather than economic collapse, it's far more likely that a decade from now China will have a strong economy but a deeply flawed and unstable society.

See also Tom Orlik's guide to battling China bears at China Real Time Report, via CDT.

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Yang Rui, writing in Global Times, says he called Melissa Chan a “shrew” (not bitch) [UPDATE]

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:40 PM PDT

Here is the "editor's note" that precedes Yang Rui's first public defense of himself on English-language media:

Yang Rui is the Managing Editor and Host of Dialogue on CCTV News, which endeavors to present news about China and the world from a Chinese perspective and in a balanced way. He is responding to an article posted May 18th on the website of Wall Street Journal, which was published without his knowledge or comment.

If you care to read on, here it is. The penultimate paragraph:

The more serious part of the accusations against me is the mischaracterization of what I said in Chinese; "Po Fu" if you look it up on Jin Shan Ci Ba, one of the most popular Chinese translation sites, and A Chinese-English Dictionary, the third edition published by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press in January, 2010, means "shrew."

UPDATE, 1:48 pm: Yang Rui was not writing for Global Times; the text comes from an email he first sent to the Wall Street Journal, later copied by GT with slight edits and published under Yang's byline.

Source: Beijing Cream

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无觅

China: Campaign to Clean ‘Foreign Trash' Out of Beijing

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:52 PM PDT

According to Beijing police, there are currently about 200,000 foreign residents in Beijing. Since May 15, 2012, the Chinese government has started 'cleaning out' illegal foreign residents. Local newspapers claim that this campaign is in reaction to a sexual assault committed by a British citizen on May 8, 2012 in Beijing.

Echoing the official campaign, Yang Rui, television anchor of state-controlled China Central Television English Channel (CCTV 9), suggested in Chinese micro-blogging site Sina Weibo that foreigners are 'spies', 'trash' and 'thugs'. He also called Melissa Chan, Al Jazeera's Beijing correspondent, who was expelled by the Chinese government in early May 2012, a 'bitch' and furthermore, suggested that more representatives of foreign media should be kicked out of China. The inclusion of the expelled AJ reporter in the list of 'foreign trash' somehow confirmed speculations [zh] that the campaign to remove illegal foreigners has hidden political motivations, in particular as seen against the background of the escape of blind dissident Chen Guangcheng to the U.S.

Josh Chin from China Real Time Report, the Chinese branch of the Wall Street Journal, wrote an article about this issue which included the following translation of comments made by Yang Rui:

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 report caught Yang Rui's attention and he responded [zh] in Sina Weibo as follows:

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

How come the Wall Street Journal is so concerned about the cleaning out of foreign trash? What rubbish to hint that I am xenophobic. In China, we have quite a few foreign trash but we also have many foreign friends who follow Chinese law. We have to distinguish the two and clean out the trash, get along together rationally. Chinese people are famous for their hospitality, some are too friendly and give too much credit to the outsiders to the extent that they have lost their personality and national pride. Buddies, have fun on weekend. (sic)

Chinese resident, blogger and film maker Charlie Custer found such remarks outrageous and pointed out in his blog that:

It's interesting that this outburst came from Yang Rui, who is in some ways one of the faces of China's soft power push. Dialogue is an English-language program, which means it is targeted at foreigners in China and abroad by default. The fact that its host (one of them, anyway) is apparently a racist xenophobe is probably indicative of how successful China's soft power push is likely to be.

But beyond that, it is rather incredible that someone who has been talking to foreigners for years — indeed, someone who is supposed to be one of China's representatives to foreigners — apparently knows so little about us that he actually believes crazy shit like this…

Mr Custer also demanded that CCTV fire the xenophobic host. On the right hand side is his online pamphlet, which has been circulated widely on Sina Weibo.

In response to this action, Yang invited the police [zh] to check on the blogger's background:

你那么激动，不自信，看来真的行为不端，有劣行，是该当垃圾被清扫出去，建议公安部门查一下他的背景。劝你冷静一下，看看博主另一篇围脖，我反对排外，特指那些少数洋流氓，洋垃圾，在自己国内找不到工作，来中国胡来的素质很差的外国人需要被驱逐出境。你对号入座，我的任务完成了。

You are too emotional. Only social deviants who are off track in their behavior would be so lacking in confidence. I suggest the Public Security Bureau does a thorough check of your background. I suggest you calm down and read my other weibo post. I am against xenophobia and I only pinpointed those foreign trash and foreign thugs who could not find employment in their own country. Those foreigners who behave loosely and with bad morals need to be kicked out of the country. You have chosen your position, I have accomplished my mission.

Quite a number of Chinese netizens are conscious of Yang's position in the propaganda machine and have challenged his idiocy. However, many netizens are in support of the government policy of cleaning out foreigners in Weibo, with feelings inflamed by extensive reports in local media on criminal activities by foreign individuals and abusive behavior, such as this shameful incident on a passenger train. Below are some typical comments under the Sina Weibo's popular tag: #Beijing clean out illegal foreign residents# (#北京清理非法居留外国人#):

@网游快报：#北京清理非法居留外国人#在清理 "三非"老外的同时，也要严加管教，那些合法的外国人，让他们知道 来了中国就要给我老实本分的 遵守中国法律 ！

@网游快报：Apart from cleaning out the 'illegals', we have to educate the legal ones. Let them know that they have to behave humbly and follow the Chinese law.

@随他去_盛儿： #北京清理非法居留外国人#早就应该这样。不止北京。其他地方也应该这样！中国平时对他们太好了！我们对他们友善。他对我们友善么！都敢在中国的土地欺负中国人了！！可悲中国人却不敢帮中国人！！

@随他去_盛儿: The government should have exercised their authority a long time ago. The policy should be extended to other cities, not just Beijing. We are too good to them. While we are friendly to them, they are not friendly to us. They are now bullying Chinese people in their own country. It is pathetic that the Chinese people will not stand up to defend themselves.

@复活的恺撒：#北京清理非法居留外国人#希望来中国骗姑娘、骗钱、骗声望的外国渣滓全部被朝鲜捉去做苦力。

@复活的恺撒：I wish that all the foreign scum bags, who cheated our women, money and reputation would be sent to north Korea and become slaves.

This post was sub-edited by Jane Ellis.

Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0)
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Is ‘Safe Migration’ Along the Thai-Lao Border Truly ‘Safe?’

Posted: 22 May 2012 03:33 PM PDT

Memo #157 (The fifth Memo from the Theme, Labour Migration from Southeast Asia)

By Sverre Molland – sverre.molland [at] anu.edu.au

Since the late 1990s, international organizations and NGOs have engaged with labour migrants in the Mekong region. This includes either advocating for migrants' rights, or launching anti-trafficking programs. More recently, the term "safe migration" has surfaced within policy circles and the broader aid community with several organizations implementing "safe migration" programs.

But what exactly is "safe" about "safe migration?"

"Safe migration" echoes a legalization thesis common in debates regarding labour migration. Through legalization, the argument goes, the potential market for traffickers and exploiters is destroyed. Limiting exploitation increases labour remittances, thus contributing to development.

"Safe migration" programs advocate legal rights. But they make implicit assumptions regarding social relationships between migrants and brokers. Several aid organizations operate on the premise that "safe migration" either consists of officially licensed labour recruitment firms, or informal intimate networks of friends and extended kin. Within this framework, unauthorized brokers who are external to village communities are heavily associated with human traffickers and dubious migration requirements.

This model of "types" of brokers carries risks as it assumes informal networks and legal documents ensure "safe migration." In the case of the sex commerce economy along the Thai-Lao border, recruitment is commonly carried out within informal and intimate social networks. The arrangements are usually but not always consensual.

On both sides of the Thai-Lao border, sex workers frequently go home to their village communities and occasionally engage in deceptive recruitment of acquaintances. The use of legal documents, such as passports, border passes, and working permits, is common. But rather than protecting the individuals, these documents are often appropriated as leverage by these brokering networks. The costs of work permits, for example, are born by the migrant in the form of increased debt bondage. Hence, there is a high level of risk within the very same social relationships that are assumed "safe" by anti-trafficking and "safe migration" programs.

The fact that several aid programs engage experienced migrants as "peer educators" is tragicomic. They might be the very same individuals these programs are attempting to combat in the laudable quest to ensure "safe migration" in the Mekong region.

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An anti-trafficking poster at the Thai-Lao border

Young Laotians staring across the border to Thailand

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Two Charged in USC Shootings

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:44 PM PDT

Two men have been charged with the recent murders of two Chinese students in Los Angeles, and could face the . The case stirred up resentment of China's growing income inequality when early reports falsely referred to the students' "brand new" "$60,000″ BMW. From Reuters:

Two men accused of fatally shooting a pair of Chinese graduate students at the University of Southern California were charged on Tuesday with capital murder, making them eligible to face the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said ….

The men arrested in the case, 20-year-old Bryan Barnes and 19-year-old Javier Bolden, have been charged with capital murder during a suspected robbery. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to seek the death penalty or life in prison, both options in a capital case, the district attorney's office said.

The two will face the charges when they appear in a court later on Tuesday afternoon.

The victims' parents sued USC last week, accusing the university of making misleading claims about students' safety. From The Los Angeles Times:

Their attorney, Alan Burton Newman, alleges in the lawsuit that inaccurately claimed on its website that it "is ranked among the safest of U.S. universities and colleges, with one of the most comprehensive, proactive campus and community safety programs in the nation." The suit notes that says it provides 24-hour security on campus and in surrounding neighborhoods.

The suit says USC "provided no patrolling" in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred. After the killings, USC persisted with a "clearly misleading" portrayal of safety, reiterating in a letter to the campus community that crime "is low compared to other areas of Los Angeles," according to the lawsuit.

In response, USC attorney Debra Wong Yang said the university is "deeply saddened by this tragic event, which was a random violent act not representative of the safety of USC or the neighborhoods around campus. While we have deep sympathy for the victims' families, this lawsuit is baseless and we will move to have it dismissed."

Stan Abrams, commenting on the case at China Hearsay, agreed, concluding that whatever precautions are taken, "these things just happen."

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Ma Jun: The Most Creative Person in Business

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:10 PM PDT

Fast Company Magazine recently named Chinese environmental activist Ma Jun to the #1 spot on their list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. Christina Larson profiles him for the magazine:

An environmental researcher by trade, Ma spent years chronicling China's ecological catastrophes. Some of what he witnessed was inexorable and slow, like the graying of the sky; last December, the World Health Organization ranked 1,035th, out of 1,100 international cities, in air quality. Other results of his country's unfettered growth were horrific, like the massive flooding of the Yangtze in 1998, after years of deforestation and soil erosion. Eventually, he decided that merely telling the story was not enough. "As a media person, you look to expose the problem," he says, "but you can't stop there-—people are looking for answers."

Ma founded the not-for-profit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) in 2006. Since then, more than anyone else in China, Ma has channeled the power of the Internet and the optimism of China's younger generation into a force for environmental change. Working with a devoted national network of young volunteers, Ma and his nine full-time staffers have compiled an open-source online database of water, air, and hazardous-waste records—-in the country that generates the world's highest emissions. Those records are damning: Over five years, IPE volunteers have helped hunt down some 97,000 records of factories operating in violation of China's green laws. And those efforts lead to change.

"When I look at China's environmental problems, the real barrier is not lack of technology or money," he says. "It's lack of motivation. The motivation should come from regulatory enforcement, but enforcement is weak and environmental litigation is near to impossible. So there's an urgent need for extensive public participation to generate another kind of motivation." Ma has become expert at using his database to create that motivation, especially when it comes to helping global companies police their suppliers.

Read more about Ma Jun and about environmental activism in China, via CDT. See also our special section on the Environment.

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Nissan Cruises into Hong Kong, Gears Towards China

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:54 PM PDT

As more and more auto makers are gearing their products towards China, is also expanding their luxury car market to China, and they are aiming for 10% of the market despite being one of the late-comers into China's . Reuters reports:

Nissan Motor Co Ltd said it aims to triple global sales of its premium Infiniti brand by 2016 and take 10 percent of China's luxury vehicle market, challenging leaders like Audi AG and Mercedes Benz maker Daimler AG.

The target appears "challenging," Yale Zhang, head of -based consulting firm Automotive Foresight, said.

In order for Nissan to achieve it, the Yokohama-based automaker would have to "aggressively push localization over the coming two to three years and aggressively price locally produced cars," Zhang said.

In China, Infiniti sold just 19,000 cars in the last fiscal year ended March, a fraction of the more than 300,000 sold in 2011 by Audi, Volkswagen AG's premium brand.

While Nissan expands into emerging markets with the revival of their Datsun brand, they plan to enter China through Hong Kong with the luxury brand, Infiniti.ABC News adds:

Nissan's upscale Infiniti brand unveiled its new global headquarters in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as the Japanese automaker uses the southern Chinese financial center to grab a bigger piece of the world's top car market.

Infiniti is the first car maker to base itself in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous region of China better known for its banking prowess and stock market.

Ghosn said the company chose to move the high-end division to Hong Kong so staff could better observe the city's luxury goods market. Many foreign brands have flocked to the city in recent years in pursuit of wealthy Chinese shoppers.

"During the next five years, Hong Kong and mainland China will together be our most important growth market," Ghosn said.

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China Probes Detention of Fishermen

Posted: 22 May 2012 12:08 PM PDT

As CDT reported earlier, 28 Chinese fishermen have been detained in North Korean waters and held for a ransom of $142,000. These fishermen were eventually released, but it is unclear whether or not the ransom was paid. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The fishermen returned to the Chinese port of Dalian on Monday morning, the New China News Agency reported.

Chinese media suggested that did not pay a ransom for the boats. The news agency report credited China's ambassador to Pyongyang, Liu Hongcai, with securing the release through "negotiation and close contact" with the North Korean government.

The release of the boats does little, however, to clear up questions about whether impoverished North Koreans are engaging in Somalia-style piracy to raise money. Following the death of leader Kim Jong Il in December, elevated his 28-year-old son, Kim Jong Un, to replace him, and some believe the transition has not gone smoothly.

Chinese fishery officials were quoted Monday as demanding an investigation into who in North Korea was behind the seizure of the boats. The state-run Global Times newspaper said hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels had been ordered to retreat westward to avoid another incident.

This incident comes amid tensions about Pyongyang's nuclear activities and missile tests. Although China, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to work together on dealing with North Korea, China has seemed to launch it's own investigation on the incident. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The report said the Koreans took whatever they could, and that one boat wasn't enough to hold all of the booty and that a second boat was called in.

The fishermen were later taken ashore and given cigarettes before being forced at gunpoint to sign a document while they were filmed. According to the report, the contents of the document read : "We entered DPRK waters and were working there illegally. The DPRK treated us in a friendly manner and all was normal during our stay there."

The report makes the point that it is still unclear who actually detained the Chinese fishermen, with the crew insisting that the boats were boarded in the early morning and the fishermen were unable to see for sure. They did not say whether they had any other opportunities to identify the gunboat.

The North Korean embassy in Beijing declined to comment, but China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei offered Beijing's most extensive comments on the incident to date at a regular press briefing Tuesday afternoon. Here is what he said: "The Foreign Ministry attaches great importance to the incident. The Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea maintained close communication with the DPRK in Beijing and Pyongyang, securing the release of the fishermen and fishing boats. The Chinese side urged the DPRK to observe agreements, including those on consular visits and notifications. China also demanded the DPRK ensure safety and humanitarian treatment of the fishermen. Based on our understanding, the Bureau of Fisheries is conducting investigation."

Beijing is Pyongyang's closest political ally, and this incident has sparked tension among netizens that call Pyongyang "ungrateful." The BBC adds:

The allegations, which have been circulated widely on Chinese social media, caused anger among , who slammed North Korea for its "ingratitude" and accused the Chinese authorities of being weak.

On Weibo, China's Twitter-like microblogging platform, more than a million posts have been published on the incident since the detention was publicised last week.

"North Koreans, do you still deserve our help? Is this how you repay us?" said Kong Lingquan, a -based event director.

"After such a shameful incident, why doesn't our government demand an explanation from North Korea?" a Weibo user said.

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Today’s Most Viral Image: When “Confession Day” Ends in Disappointment

Posted: 22 May 2012 11:13 AM PDT

We all need someone. With over 23,000 reposts since its appearance, the image of love and companionship at left is Sina Weibo's most viral image of May 22, according to Hong Kong University's Weiboscope. Weiboscope tracks the most widely re-posted images among prominent users.

What is this image?

The image is self-explanatory; more interesting is the appended text, which reads, "I just need one person who won't abandon me." [Chinese]

Where did it come from?

A Weibo account with over 335,000 followers entitled "1001 Nocturnes" (@1001封夜话) tweeted this image on the evening of May 20. The account specializes in soothing and romantic images and appears to target them to forlorn lovers. Its self-description begins, "The night is too long, [and] missing [someone] is a kind of silent sorrow, that can't be erased."[Chn.] Sheesh.

Why is it so popular?

China's Confession Day (表白日) took place this weekend, inspiring millions of tweets on Sina Weibo (see this thread here) and, one may expect, millions of confessions delivered behind closed doors, or over coffee, or over beer. The day's premise: Since the Mandarin pronunciation of "5/20″ sounds roughly like "I love you" in the same language, May 20 was the day for unspoken affection to stride boldly forth.

For some love-starved netizens, however, the day might not have brought them what they wanted to hear. An image of love, posted just shy of midnight, was destined to appeal to those beginning to realize that those three coveted words were not forthcoming. Perhaps, they felt, a subtle re-tweet of this image would jog the right person's memory.

Footnotes (? returns to text)
  1. 我只是需要一个不会放弃我的人。?
  2. 夜太长，思念是一种无言的哀愁，无法抹去。@1001封夜话，长长的思念，深深的情怀。。。?

China: Chinese Man Murdered by Government-employed Demolition Team

Posted: 22 May 2012 09:57 AM PDT

Again, a Chinese man was brutally killed on May 15 by dipper when he tried to stop his home from being razed by the government-employed demolition team in Heilongjiang province. (Ministry of Tofu has translated the news.)

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The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay Twitter feed) – 2012-05-22

Posted: 21 May 2012 08:59 PM PDT

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China: Workers' Culture on Weibo

Posted: 22 May 2012 07:57 AM PDT

Jennifer Cheung from China Labour Bulletin introduces how workers in China make use of micro-blog to tell their stories in different artistic forms.

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Another Weibo Victory or Mob Justice in China?

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:29 AM PDT

If you've been following the criminal trial of Wu Ying, who is sort of China's Bernie Madoff (or one of them, at any rate), you may have heard a while back that her original death sentence had been overturned by the Supreme People's Court and remanded back to the trial court for sentencing. The interesting angle here stems from the public outcry over the original sentencing; folks thought the punishment was excessive for an economic crime. Once the SPC overturned the sentence, critics declared victory.

Well, now we have closure on the case. From Don Clarke's Chinese Law Prof Blog:

The Wu Ying case has been much in the news recently. She was originally sentenced to death, but the Supreme People's Court, on reviewing the death sentence, sent it back for re-hearing. (Remarkably, it managed to do so despite finding no flaws in the fact-finding, application of law, or process.) The Zhejiang Higher People's Court (at the provincial level) changed the sentence to death with a two-year reprieve. This kind of sentence is almost always commuted to a life sentence at the end of the two-year period.

Basically, her death sentence was knocked down to life. Fairly common here, actually.

But once again, for the record, I'm troubled by this case. As I've noted on a number of occasions about other criminal cases that have seemingly been influenced by public opinion, the precedent is very dangerous. You might be pleased with this result, but the next one might go down differently. Moreover, given the ugliness that we've seen from online microbloggers (also known as "weibots") these days over the "foreigner question," do we really want to entrust such power to the whims of the mob? As others have pointed out, these types of cases are not victories but evidence that rule of law here still has a long way to go.

For a balanced look at the issue, including weibot discussions, check out this great post at Tea Leaf Nation.

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Op-Ed: Chinese Haters of “Foreign Trash” Should Consider Their Own History

Posted: 22 May 2012 12:49 AM PDT

A foreigner cannot be blamed for this particular mess

[Note: The following is a Tea Leaf Nation op-ed, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors.]

One of the leading Zen Masters of the Song Dynasty was Dahui Zonggao (大慧宗杲), a major teacher of the Lin-chi Zen school and fervent proponent of Kōan training, which consisted of perplexing questions or answers that tested one's understanding of Zen.

In a collection of letters Dahui wrote to laypeople and students, whose English translation is known as the Swampland Flowers, the master wrote,

"The obstruction of the Path by the mind and its conceptual discrimination is worse than poisonous snakes or fierce tigers. Why? Because poisonous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, whereas intelligent people make the mind's conceptual discrimination their home, so that there's never a single instant, whether they're walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, that they're not having dealings with it. … Thus it is said that poisonous snakes and fierce tigers can still be avoided, but the mind's conceptual discrimination truly has no place for you to escape."

This is a wise adage, and something we should all be reminded of from time to time. We should bear this in mind all the more in an increasingly multicultural world, where living with our neighbors progressively becomes an excuse for discrimination based on differences.

How quickly we forget where we came from

In recent weeks there has been a surge of anti-foreign sentiment plaguing China's Twitter-like service, Weibo, as well as the media. A video that went viral online of a British male attempting to rape a girl in Beijing as well as that of a young Russian putting his feet on the backrest of a seat on a Chinese train have caused a lot of anger. Many are claiming China should rid itself of this "foreign trash." A blog entry on the Wall Street Journal articulates Chinese TV personality Yang Rui's recent attack on "foreign trash," such as "that foreign bitch," journalist Melissa Chan of Al-Jazeera who was denied a visa renewal in China for having done her job all too well.

Dahui Zonggao would be disappointed

It seems Mr. Yang has forgotten several key aspects of his land's history. Yang Rui was born in Heilongjiang province, in northeastern China. This region is a sea of cultural and racial mixes, as it sits between Russia and inner Mongolia. It had strong Korean influence when it was ruled by the kingdom of Balhae between the 7th and 10th century, followed by Mongol rule from the 13th to 14th century. It then became a Japanese domain in the first half of the 20th century. During part of its Manchu rule, Han Chinese – the ethnic group native to China – were closed off from traveling to the eastern half of Heilongjiang. Thus the region's inhabitants were not Chinese, in the strictest sense. It was only in the 1860s that Manchuria opened itself to Han Chinese, and then again during the Chinese Civil War in the 1950s.

Given this splendid mixture of peoples and cultures, it is likely that Mr. Yang is just as much a "foreigner" in today's China as the ethnically Chinese "foreign bitch," Melissa Chan.

The discrimination against foreigners that is oozing over China makes even less sense when one considers the fact that China exports more students to the United States than any other country. According to the Chicago Sun Times, "China has been the top exporter of students to the U.S. twice before – in the late 1980s and the late 1990s." Ironically, Mr. Yang's daughter also attended a U.S. university.

It is not clear who, precisely, frustrated individuals such as Mr. Yang are referring to when they disdain "foreign trash." In fact, a professor of Chinese Literature at Peking university, Kong Qingdong, who is quoted as calling U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "bitch," also insulted all Hong Kongers, calling them "bastards, dogs and thieves" in a program that has been posted on YouTube. Let us remember that historically speaking, Hong Kongers were originally mainland Chinese who voted with their feet, fleeing the mainland to seek refuge in the former British colony where they enjoyed greater freedoms and better lifestyles.

Relations with Hong Kong no better

Do Hong Kongers qualify as "foreign trash?" If they do, it would seem that many Chinese long to become it.

This cartoon at xkb.com shows a mother with a "double no" child

In recent years, Hong Kongers have seen a surge of births of so-called "Shuangfei", or "double-no" babies – meaning neither the father nor the mother is a Hong Kong resident. Immediately before giving birth, the pregnant mothers dash from the mainland to Hong Kong so that their babies can benefit from superior medical treatment, permanent Hong Kong residency, and 12 years of free education in the former British colony. According to the Telegraph, the mothers who give birth to a Hong Kong baby also "claim automatic rights for themselves."

As an article on the East Asia Gazette explicates, "the number of 'double-no' babies quadrupled between 2003 and 2005, as the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) signed between China's and Hong Kong's governments in 2003 allowed freer cross-border movement of people. Since then, the number has been increasing steadily. In the first six months of 2011, the "double-no" babies made up nearly 40% of total births in Hong Kong."

This has led to equally racist attitudes in Hong Kong towards mainlanders, who upon being called "dogs," responded by calling their mainland brethren "locusts."

Just as the mainlanders are frustrated by foreigners keeping their feet on backrests in trains, so too are Hong Kongers infuriated with mainland Chinese children urinating in plastic bags on the subway.

Confucius would wince

Rather than venting their spleen on "foreign trash," Chinese netizens and individuals such as Yang Rui or Kong Qingdong should find it in themselves to be more introspective and ask how on earth could their own kin commit such ludicrous crimes such as running over the two-year-old Xiao Yue Yue multiple times and demonstrate complete apathy thereafter. Kong Qingdong, who claims to be a direct male-line descendant of Confucius, should be the first to know Confucius' wise advice: "When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves."

The Zen master, Dahui Zonggao, was well aware of mankind's proclivity to revert to discrimination as a facile means of justifying what's wrong with the world. Since the beginning of time, people from all different countries, from all different cultures, have been prone to blame others instead of realizing the folly of human nature itself, which is harder to avoid than "poisonous snakes and fierce tigers."

PLA official speaks out against “political liberalism”

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:59 AM PDT

Writing in the Liberation Army Daily (解放军报) today, Cai Weisu (蔡伟素), vice-minister of the logistics division for the Chengdu Military Region, spoke out against what he called "political liberalism," calling for unquestioning obedience by CCP members and military personnel to "the policies, regulations and discipline demands of the Party."

"Discipline is the guarantor of the line of the ruling Party, the lifeline of the armed forces and the Party," Cai wrote.

Whether in the extreme hardship of revolution and war, or in the complicated era of peace and development, our Party and our armed forces must maintain strict political discipline, protecting the political stands of Party members and ensuring the thoroughness of the revolution. Today, every Party member must consciously defend the discipline and high position of the Party . . . struggling with a clear-cut stand against all that damages the unity of the Party, that violates the discipline of the Party, and that does harm to the basic interests of the Party. . .

Cai continued: "Party members and cadres must conscientiously study and grasp the the policies, regulations and discipline demands of the Party, not stepping on the 'red line' and not charging into 'forbidden zones'. They must speak [the Party's] politics (讲政治), obey commands and follow the rules, firmly opposing liberalism in politics, and they must not heed, trust or pass along hearsay, consciously subjecting their words and deeds to the restraint of policy and discipline.."

Two more portions of Cai's editorial follow:

Strengthening our political consciousness and strictly observing political discipline are not abstract concepts, and even less empty slogans. Their importance lies in active practice, and their weight in experience and training. The words and actions of leading cadres all have an impact on the armed forces, and we must at all times keep cool heads, evincing in our actual work and concrete actions the principle of "in talking politics, having the interests of the whole nation at heart and having a strong sense of discipline."

We must deeply study the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, closely integrating it with the realities of our armed forces, observing and handling issues while standing at the political heights, accurately seeing the various tensions and difficulties facing social development in our nation . . .


[ABOVE: An editorial in today's Liberation Army Daily (highlighted in red by CMP) speaks out against "political liberalism."]

Here are some comments made to a Sina Weibo post on the editorial by the official Weibo of Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily at 5:03pm:

(1) What is this all about? Are military orders not being followed? The military doesn't dare go to the mats with foreign countries, except where folding quilts, marching and showing off regalia are concerned. Struggling internally, is that all they can do? It's just a leadership handover [during the upcoming 18th Party Congress]. Is it necessary to get so worked up?

(2) So everything is for the interest of the Party? And the interests of the country and of the people, do they mean nothing?

(3) The brainwashing here is the same as in the property market.

(4) Officials want to preserve their so-called "authority" even if it means killing people! When will they understand respecting the interests of the people in their hearts, putting that first?

(5) Is Party discipline supreme, or the laws of the nation? So it seems the person who wrote this doesn't understand the law?

(6) Dida, dida, dida, dida, in the silence of the night who do you talk to? // Comrade Huang Keqiang once said: "During the war of resistance against the Japanese, Chairman Mao used radio . . . to direct us, dida dida [like clockwork]." 'Dida dida' means carrying out [orders] without condition, without supervision by anyone.

(7) The dida back in Mao Zedong's day had the people at heart. The roar of detonation heard today is the people's homes crashing to the ground [being demolished for development].

(8) It's all about the changeover of leadership! Every day now they send out these public opinion offensives, these people with the courage of rats! It's laughable! This shows that there are ghosts in their hearts!

(9) I don't understand a word this paper that protects the Party says.

(10) Glory to the army that protects the Party! Glory to Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping!

Remember Wang Yang?

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:58 AM PDT

Before the wheels fell off of Bo Xilai's Red Culture Express, his "Chongqing Model" of governance was often mentioned alongside Guangdong party chief 's comparatively liberal approach, with the two men underscoring the increasingly public ideological cleavage within the Chinese Communist Party and seen as competing to define the next chapter in China's development. With now out of the picture, Reuters' John Ruwitch and Michael Martina report that Wang now appears poised to nab a seat on the in the upcoming :

Wang, 57, used his provincial party congress meeting this month to garner publicity ahead of the 18th national Party Congress where, late this year, a new and younger leadership group will be unveiled to replace President Hu Jintao's team.

Wang's performance at the Guangdong congress highlighted his image as the politician most likely to take up the reformist mantle of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, who had seen Bo as a threat to his legacy and moved swiftly to cut him down.

"Wang Yang's speech was sort of valedictory," said Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based expert on the Chinese leadership.

The article also calls attention to two other provincial-level party chief's, 's and 's , who are seen as contenders for seats on the Standing Committee and, like Wang, can use their respective party congresses as platforms to make their case for promotion.

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Could Ferrari driver in Singapore crash be son of state councillor Ma Kai?

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:39 AM PDT

The mother of the late Ferrari driver Ma Chi (centre, in a white blouse and black skirt) is inconsolable as she arrives at the crash scene, in this image from Singapore media reports. Behind her is her daughter-in-law He Tingting, a former news anchor with Sichuan TV.

Rumours are now swirling on the Chinese interwebs that the dead 31-year-old Ferrari driver in the recent three-vehicle crash in Singapore is the son of State Councillor and Secretary-General of the State Council Ma Kai (马凯).

The rumours can be traced back to journalist Cao Guoxing, the Shanghai correspondent of the Chinese service of Radio France Internationale. Without naming names, Cao hinted on his Sina Weibo account yesterday that the late Ma Chi, who bought the limited-edition $1.43 million Ferrari as a birthday present for himself last year, is the son of the afore-mentioned councillor.

He wrote:

"I just found out that the man who went gallivanting in his Ferrari with a pretty girl behind the back of his pregnant wife (a former Sichuan TV news anchor), and ended up killing three people (including himself) is surnamed Ma, and his name is Ma Chi. How did he become Sichuanese?"

"刚知道新加坡，在老婆（四川电视台主持人）怀孕期间，载美女开法拉利游车河，闯红灯撞死三个人（包括他自己）的那小子，姓马。。叫马驰 ，他怎么成四川人了呢？（图片来自网络，莫跨省）"

Attached to Cao's post were pictures (see above) of Yuan Zhongxiu (袁忠秀), wife of State Councillor Ma Kai, which showed an uncanny resemblance to an image of Ma Chi's mother as shown in Singapore media reports.

Unfortunately, Cao's post was deleted by internet censors within 30 minutes.

According to his official biography on Xinhua, State Councillor Ma Kai, who has recently been keeping up a busy schedule meeting guests from the European Union, is from Shanghai, not Sichuan.

Skeptical netizens also point out that Ma Kai is supposed to only have one daughter and no son.

Reflecting the sensitivity of the matter, searches for Ma Kai's Chinese name are now blocked on Sina Weibo.

In the meanwhile, Sina Weibo's official rumour-busting service has remained silent on the matter.

The plot thickens…

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