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- China Richer But Not Happier
- China’s iPad Generation
- Beijing Unveils Two Fly Policy
- Blood Samples May Prove Heywood Poisoning
- Need a Job? Be a Chinese Internet Censor
- Expansion and Iran on Table at SCO Summit
- What the Chinese Want
- Photo: China Post, by Michael Steverson
- Word of the Week: Celestial Empire
- The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay Twitter feed) – 2012-05-23
- AMC Acquisition: Yes, There is a Soft Power Angle to This Story
- They Got the Same Shit Over There That We Got Here – Stupid Internet Law
Posted: 24 May 2012 12:01 AM PDT At American Public Media's Marketplace, Kai Ryssdal and Rob Schmitz discuss a recent study from the University of Southern California which suggested that rising incomes in China are failing to bring greater happiness to broad swathes of the population. Rising prices and growing income inequality appear to be undermining any expected gains, and may be sowing the seeds of social unrest.
The Los Angeles Times reported the study's release last week, and described China's use by economists as "a real-life laboratory to study how money, inequality and change are tied to our satisfaction with life".
At TIME, Austin Ramzy noted that Bo Xilai's gestures towards addressing economic inequality helped build his broad popularity among Chongqingers.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Posted: 23 May 2012 11:57 PM PDT At Foreign Policy, Deborah Jian Lee and Sushma Subramanian describe the effects of China's mass labour migration on the families it pulls apart. Absent parents leave tens of millions of rural children vulnerable to depression, suicide and kidnapping, but the discriminatory hukou registration system makes it difficult for families to move to the cities together.
Xinhua photographer Liu Jie poignantly captured the problem of divided families last year in a set of group portraits in which absent family members were represented by empty chairs. See past posts on CDT for more on labour migration and the hukou system. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Beijing Unveils Two Fly Policy Posted: 23 May 2012 11:56 PM PDT Hot on the heels of the new "Three Have-Nots" campaign against undocumented foreigners, Beijing authorities have announced new guidelines for the city's public toilets, including a limit of two flies per facility. From the BBC:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Blood Samples May Prove Heywood Poisoning Posted: 23 May 2012 07:56 PM PDT The Los Angeles Times' Barbara Demick reports that Chongqing police reached out to U.S-based forensic scientist Henry C. Lee, a professional acquaintance of Wang Lijun best known for his work in the O.J. Simpson and Phil Spector murder trials, to analyze a blood sample that likely came from dead British businessman Neil Heywood:
The Telegraph's Jon Swaine writes that the blood samples suggest that investigators may prove decisively that Neil Heywood was poisoned, a revelation that would have serious consequences for Gu Kailai, Bo Xilai or anyone else involved in the incident. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Need a Job? Be a Chinese Internet Censor Posted: 23 May 2012 07:10 PM PDT The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report calls attention to a notice posted by Sina Corp. on Monday which invited candidates to apply for the position of "monitoring editor," a notice which drew a wealth of cynical comments from netizens about China's censorship regime:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Expansion and Iran on Table at SCO Summit Posted: 23 May 2012 05:30 PM PDT From June 6-7, China will be hosting the 2012 Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Beijing. The SCO is an international mutual-security organization thought by some to be a collective attempt to counter NATO and limit influence in central Asia. Earlier this week, the future of Afghanistan was a major talking-point at the NATO summit in Chicago, and will likely also be addressed at the SCO summit. Afghanistan has been attending SCO summits as a guest since the organization's beginning, and last year applied for observer status – a notion supported by Beijing, reflecting its desire for a stable Afghanistan. CRIEnglish notes that full observer status will likely be granted to Afghanistan at next month's summit:
Also on the agenda – and likely to steal the spotlight – at the upcoming summit is Iran. An SCO observer since 2005, Iran has been denied member status, as the SCO limits any state under UN sanctions from full membership. In the midst of an ongoing EU oil embargo, and after the US Senate's recent approval of new sanctions against Iran (which China characteristically and vocally opposed), Iranian President Ahmadinejad will attend the upcoming Summit in Beijing. From Reuters:
The Economic Times notes that Beijing has expressed approval of India and Pakistan, both SCO Observers since 2005, eventually becoming members of the organization:
For more on the upcoming SCO summit, see Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi outlining the agenda, from CCTV:
© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Posted: 23 May 2012 02:38 PM PDT In the Wall Street Journal, Tom Doctoroff, a China-based advertising executive and author of "What Chinese Want: Culture, Communism and China's Modern Consumer," gives his perspective on what Chinese consumers want and what foreign companies need to do to win a following in China:
Read more about advertising and consumerism in China via CDT. © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Photo: China Post, by Michael Steverson Posted: 23 May 2012 12:35 PM PDT © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Word of the Week: Celestial Empire Posted: 23 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT Editor's Note: The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness. If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net. 天朝 (tiān cháo): Celestial Empire The Celestial Empire is an ancient name for China. Recently, netizens have used the term sarcastically to refer to China under the current government. Oftentimes the term is used to suggest that China's leaders are self-important and have a China-centric view of the world. 网络用语,中国大陆网民对中华人民共和国的称呼,多见于与动漫相关的网站,使用时往往带有讽刺或称颂色彩。 © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay Twitter feed) – 2012-05-23 Posted: 22 May 2012 08:59 PM PDT
© Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
AMC Acquisition: Yes, There is a Soft Power Angle to This Story Posted: 23 May 2012 04:25 AM PDT Anytime a Chinese company gets involved with a media company, someone is bound to theorize about a nefarious government plot behind it designed to control the hearts and minds of the populace. The acquisition of AMC Entertainment by Wanda Group is one deal that has so far been discussed in the press on its merits, with little or no discussion of any over-arching political considerations. That's why I got a sinking feeling when I started reading "How the Deal for AMC Entertainment Furthers China's Culture Agenda" by Bruce Einhorn in Bloomberg. The title is quite provocative, and I thought the piece was going to be some sort of "wink wink, nod nod" about China's use of media to further a political agenda. But I was wrong, and I apologize to Bruce for even thinking that. So what's with the "culture agenda" reference? It's a valid one, and actually quite straightforward:
Ah. China is actively seeking to build up its cultural infrastructure, and the AMC acquisition certainly dovetails with that policy quite nicely, doesn't it? Good article, valid point. My bad. I gotta stop letting my inner cynic run wild. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
They Got the Same Shit Over There That We Got Here – Stupid Internet Law Posted: 23 May 2012 03:11 AM PDT Readers of this blog are already quite familiar with so-called "Real ID" or "Real Name" rules in China. These refer to regulations mandating that certain Net activities, such as posting to and writing comments on a microblog, are only done by folks who have duly signed up with the platform operator using legal ID (i.e. a China ID card). Why do we have these laws? In China, it can mostly be explained with the magic word "stability." The reasoning is that without some curbs on online content, social stability might suffer. Most foreigners I talk to understand this from a political speech perspective but fail to see the other aspects of these regulations. Consider the recent campaigns against online rumor-mongering. Again, this push can partly be explained with a discussion about political speech. But that's not the whole story. There are many other kinds of online rumors that the legislators consider dangerous, such as unsubstantiated information about food quality and environmental dangers. The idea here is that if false information about these issues is spread online, this could damage the economy and harm social stability. What do these rules against anonymous posts/comments look like? Here's some language from a draft regulation:
Fairly standard stuff, although it's drafted horribly; no way for site operators to verify contact information, so everyone would just end up lying. That aside, which China government agency came up with this? MIIT? MOFCOM? MOC? Don't know? Well, no surprise, that was a trick question. The draft legislation, called the "Internet Protection Act," is actually the brain child of Republican lawmakers in the New York State legislature. No, really, and trying to figure out why they have proposed such a measure tells us something about why governments favor these types of rules. Why would New York Republicans favor something that is similar to China laws designed, in part, to control online content? Here's one possibility:
Right. So it's all about cyberbullying, making sure that online conduct is "civilized." Sounds a lot like the preambles to some of the China legislation, which calls for proper regulation of the Internet for the benefit of society, blah blah blah. By the way, cyberbullying is, according to You might have heard one of those stories about a distraught kid who, after being humiliated on Facebook, drowned himself/herself in a toilet or drank a can of paint thinner. Cyberbullying. I guess those Republicans are just looking out for kids in New York, right?
Hmm. Criticism of businesses. Sounds a lot like the kind of rumor-mongering that Chinese rules are designed to stop. But hey, at least there's no political component to all this. Right? Well, you probably know what's coming next:
And let's not forget our old friend Assemblyman Murray:
Interesting. So the legislation would, in addition to dealing with cyberbullying, also help protect businesses and politicians. Sounds like a great way to ensure social and political stability and foster a more harmonious society, doesn't it? OK, before you get too excited, this New York legislation is a stunt that will never pass. Moreover, it looks like it would violate the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, so there's that little hurdle to overcome. If you use New York-based sites, I wouldn't worry too much. Last point. I am not in any way making an equivalence argument, saying that somehow the U.S., or U.S. law, is comparable to China Net rules. At the same time, I'm not commenting on the normative issues here at all (although the post title should give you a clue about my opinion). I did, however, want to point out that this type of legislation is not only making headway in other parts of the world, but also that it isn't just about political speech. As social media creeps into many facets of our lives, governments are struggling with proper regulation. Courts in China, for example, have been inundated with online copyright infringement and defamation claims in recent years. These days, all one has to do is refer to a public figure as a racist xenophobe in a blog post, and the lawsuit threats begin immediately. Hey, if the shoe fits . . . but I digress. There are obvious benefits to open online debate, but there are also downsides, including tortious acts. China is not the only government trying to figure out how to strike the right balance. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us |
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