Blogs » Politics » Edison Chen: I’ve found true love
Blogs » Politics » Edison Chen: I’ve found true love |
- Edison Chen: I’ve found true love
- Photo: Diaoyu Protests: Eating a Lolly, Flipping a Bird, by Christopher Cherry
- Forced to Fire: Netizens Condemn China’s Embrace of Russia
- “Poor Mother, Poor Nation!” In Mayhem of Protests, a Child Reported Missing
- Word of the Week: Patriotraitor
- Sensitive Words: Anti-Japan Protests (2)
- Ministry of Truth: Hong Kong Elections, Teacher’s Day
- Why Obama is on the Offense in Ohio
- Prominent Chinese Writer’s Viral “Confession”: I Am a Traitor
- The Daily Twit – 9/19/12: Protest Switch Turned to “Off” Position
- China: Cancer Villages
- Porn Star Appeals for China/Japan Friendship
- A Very Confusing Op/Ed on the Intertubes, the Middle East and the Great Satan
- Is Global Times Misunderstood?
- Weibo’s Limits and the Ballad of China’s Middle Class
- Photo: “Offend the great Han, we will kill you no matter how far,” by Christopher Cherry
| Edison Chen: I’ve found true love Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:22 PM PDT Edison Chen has found his true love? According to May Daily, the 31-year-old playboy recently was spotted roaming on Hong Kong streets with his new Taiwanese-Korean lover Angela Meng while whispering and smiling at each other. Angela Meng, 22, was said to have just returned from studying abroad, and quickly fallen prey to Edison as she worked at his Taipei JUICE store in this July. She doesn't even know about the playboy's past, revealed by source close to the girl. But Edison Chen assured that he is serious about the relationship this time. "I've found true love," he said to the public. The pair have been reported spending vacation in the US for a month too, though they claimed they were just on a business trip. |
| Photo: Diaoyu Protests: Eating a Lolly, Flipping a Bird, by Christopher Cherry Posted: 19 Sep 2012 06:31 PM PDT  Diaoyu Protests: Eating a Lolly, Flipping a Bird © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Forced to Fire: Netizens Condemn China’s Embrace of Russia Posted: 19 Sep 2012 02:58 PM PDT As anti-Japan protests rage on, outside observers have started to ask why the Chinese authorities haven't clamped down. Some even say the government has a hand in the demonstrations. An incident from earlier this year may shed light on how China handles its territorial disputes, depending on who else is laying claim to the water or land. On July 16, Russian patrol boats opened fire on a Chinese fishing vessel that strayed into its waters, detaining 36 crew members. Chinese fishermen have been detained by Japan and North Korea, but an incident involving Russia is rare. The Chinese consulate in Khabarovsk, just 19 miles from the border with China, issued this statement: "The fishing boat ignored communication from the Russians and attempted to flee. When Russian personnel prepared to board the boat, they encountered resistance and the Russians were forced to open fire." Netizens latched their anger to the idea that Russia was "forced to fire" and declared they had been "forced to repost" the consulate's hapless statement. A few select comments from Weibo:
Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Little Bluegill. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| “Poor Mother, Poor Nation!” In Mayhem of Protests, a Child Reported Missing Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:14 PM PDT "Human flesh search" (人肉搜索) is a hot button issue on the Chinese Internet. This powerful tool allows an overwhelming number of Chinese netizens to mobilize quickly in order to find obscure information or identify individuals, often from a single obscure image.  Some images from the siege of "sad mother's" car, when her child allegedly went missing. Via Weibo In recent years, human flesh search has gained notoriety as both a valuable tool and as a cudgel. On one hand, human flesh search can be useful in times of crisis and bring a community together. Examples include the Sichuan Earthquake of 2008, when netizens helped identify victims and reunite them with their families, or stories of individuals seeking the help of netizens to locate old classmates and lost relatives. On the other hand, it can be used in (sometimes righteous) anger to uncover the identities of corrupt or inept officials and those deemed by netizens to be "traitors" to China. Now, the double-edged power of human flesh search has shown itself again, as netizens put their wits together to locate a young child who went missing during recent anti-Japanese protests in the western city of Xi'an. On September 15, protesters marched in Xi'an, denouncing Japanese claims to the Diaoyu Islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese. One woman driving a Japanese car along Chang'an Avenue was caught up in the protests and, she claims, lost track of her child. As a result, she set up a Weibo account with the username @一个伤心妈妈9月15–literally, "a sad mother 9/15." Her first tweet recalled how a group of "so-called patriotic anti-Japanese protesters" smashed her car while she "pleaded with them that there is a child inside the car." Despite her pleading, she wrote, the car was still smashed and the child was lost in the commotion. She posted a photograph, obtained from a "good-hearted person," of a man in a white shirt whom she alleged took her child. She ended her post pleading for netizens to help her look for the man. [1] The original post was shared by user @记者刘向南, who urged netizens to forward the message in hopes of reuniting the woman with her child. His post was retweeted over 50,000 times and has received over 13,000 comments, thousands of which are positive sentiments aimed towards the mother in hopes that the lost child is soon found and that all is well. Netizens are urging one another to quickly spread the message and utilize the power of social networking and microblogging to find the missing child. @-水冰- urged everyone to "unleash the power of your weibo, turn it up, there's no way we cannot find him!" [2] User @圆通自在住 expressed her sympathy and placed herself in the mother's shoes: "I know if that were my child lost, I would be worried to death."[3] Netizens also demonstrated anger toward the man responsible that was vivid even by the relatively low standards of anonymous Internet commentary. @鱼蛋蛋之老爸 tweeted: "Shameless hooligan, I wish for his whole family to be dead."[4] User @JOYCE20080217 wrote, "People like these are the worst, rampaging and robbing people under the banner of patriotism. It's unforgivable and he deserves to be sliced up." [5] Given the man's still-uncertain guilt based on very thin evidence, these angry tweets may have been tapping into something larger. Indeed, while finding a missing child is a highly worthwhile pursuit on its own, the "sad mother" tweet also invoked broader anxieties about the recent anti-Japanese protests that engendered it. Many netizens used commentary on the post as a place to reflect upon the protests. Some denounced the violent strand of patriotism that was fueling the anti-Japanese protests and taking over many parts of the Internet in China. @XX向洪艳 commented that "fake patriotism really hurts people, specifically the Chinese people."[6] Similarly, @不输的阳光人生 remarks on the event in light of the protests gripping China, tweeting "Poor child, poor mother, poor nation!"[7] The good news: Based on comments on the "sad mother's" original tweet, the child seems to have been found, although "sad mother" has not yet written in confirmation or thanks. While it is not clear how much credit can be attributed to online human flesh search, its crosshairs have already turned to the man in the white shirt. Will it be long before he is found? As user @池万龙 warned: "This thug will not escape." [8] It seems the mutual recriminations surrounding recent protests in China—those that pit "thugs" and "patriots" against "traitors" and "Japanese devils"—will continue. Footnotes (? returns to text)         |
| Word of the Week: Patriotraitor Posted: 19 Sep 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.
Fudan University student Tao Weishuo earned the title of patriotraitor in a 2009 town hall with Barack Obama, where he objected to President's discussion of Internet censorship. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Sensitive Words: Anti-Japan Protests (2) Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:51 AM PDT As of September 19, the following search terms are blocked on Sina Weibo (not including the "search for user" function): Anti-Japan Protests: - anti-Japan (反日) - anti-Japan (抗日) - smash + car (砸+车): Protesters have been vandalizing and destroying Japanese cars. One city went so far as to ban Japanese cars from the road in order to protect the owners. - smash (打砸) Retested Terms: - protest (抗议) - take a walk (散步): "Taking a walk" first became a sensitive term in February 2011 with calls for a "jasmine revolution" inspired by the Arab Spring. - demonstrate (游行) - assembly (集会) - demonstration (示威) See also yesterday's list of related terms. Other: - Wu Long (吴龙): CDT does not know why this is blocked. We welcome tips from readers. Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results. CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese's latest sensitive words post. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Ministry of Truth: Hong Kong Elections, Teacher’s Day Posted: 19 Sep 2012 10:34 AM PDT The following example of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, has been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Why Obama is on the Offense in Ohio Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:42 AM PDT What to know why President Obama has just gone on the offensive on China trade policy? See the results of this just released Zogby poll commissioned by Death By China Productions. The poll shows Obama faces a huge "soft on China" gap relative to Mitt Romney in the key swing state of Ohio – and some very interesting findings as well.
New Zogby Poll in Crucial Ohio Swing State
President Obama may have opened a lead in national polls, but it remains a statistical dead heat in the crucial swing state of Ohio. In the latest Zogby Poll of 601 likely voters conducted by JZ Analytics, President Obama's lead of 45%.3 to 43.2% over Mitt Romney is well within the statistical margin of error.
Candidates take note: An overwhelming majority of Ohioans — 80% — agree that "the single most important issue in the 2012 Presidential race is jobs.
50% of Ohio respondents believe that the best jobs program for America is "cracking down on China's unfair trade practices like currency manipulation, illegal export subsidies, and counterfeiting and piracy" while only 22% favor more government stimulus; and these results are consistent across liberals, moderates, and conservatives.
This finding is particularly bad news for President Obama as he faces a double digit "soft on China gap" relative to his opponent. Fully 43% of Ohioans believe Mitt Romney is more likely to crack down on China's unfair trade practices compared to only 30% for Obama. Among independents where the largest bloc of undecided votes remains, this gap holds at 35% to 26% in favor of Romney. (This finding may also help explain why Obama has recently ratcheted up his tough on China messaging.)
56% of respondents also believe "Americans should boycott Made in China products because of China's unfair trade practices and human rights abuses" while only 19% are against the boycott. This result is consistent across party affiliation, indicating the issue of China is an American issue, not a partisan issue.
If Obama is to win in the crucial swing state of Ohio – and thereby likely win the election — he would do well to try to close his very large "soft on China" gap not by attacking Romney for being soft on China – Ohioans won't believe that. Rather, Obama should carry the slogan "the best jobs program is trade reform with China" and lay out very specific policy actions that will curb China's cheating.
For his part, Romney would do well to further press his "tough on China" advantage in Ohio by extending his campaign talking points significantly beyond his promise to brand China a currency manipulator on his first day in office. Clearly, China's cheating is a flashpoint for Ohio voters who have seen whole factories uprooted and replanted in China. The Zogby Poll was commissioned by the filmmaker of Death By China Peter Navarro to benchmark attitudes of Ohioans on the China question. Navarro is traveling throughout the state showing the film and conducting town hall meetings, with stops in Youngstown, Akron, Dayton, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo, Mansfield, Portsmouth, Sandusky, Athens, and Findlay.
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| Prominent Chinese Writer’s Viral “Confession”: I Am a Traitor Posted: 19 Sep 2012 09:13 AM PDT  Li Chengpeng. Via Weibo Li Chengpeng, an influential writer and social commentator, has published an article on his blog denouncing the boycott of Japanese goods and the violent anti-Japan sentiment currently sweeping China as the two wrangle over the Diaoyu Islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese. Li made news in 2010 when he ran for political office as a candidate not sponsored by the Communist Party. Despite losing the election, he remains an outspoken advocate and activist with a sharp wit. His latest post, titled "Confessions of a Traitor" (一个卖国贼的自白) has gone viral on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, with more than 200,000 views and 19,000 comments in less than two days. In particular, Li makes several points: It's impossible to completely abstain from using Japanese products. "One patriot hastened to declare on Weibo yesterday, 'I haven't used Japanese goods for more than a decade, it hasn't impacted my life.' It was posted using an iPhone. The tragic truth: the iPhone flash memory is from Toshiba, and its image sensor is from Sony. So I decided to buy a Chinese-made Xiaomi phone, but tech aficionados tell me that the display is from SHARP. Some TV stations have stopped broadcasting Japanese car commercials. Well, they should stop broadcasting completely, because their cameras, editing machines, signal transmitters, relays, and satellite receivers are almost all Japanese." There's a kind of hypocrisy in boycotting Japanese goods because the Chinese government and the Chinese people are held to different standards. "There's a kind of strange logic. When a [state-owned] TV station uses taxpayers' money to buy Japanese machinery to report the weather, that counts as being anti-Japan. [Recently, some Chinese stations began reporting the weather over the Diaoyu Islands as part of their domestic weather reports.] But when normal Chinese people use their own money to buy Japanese-branded cars, even when they shout 'I'm anti-Japan too!' their cars still get smashed. There's a 'truth' here: With these patriots, the government is forever just, while the people are by nature suspect. In the end, all the people view each other with suspicion. That's what this whole patriotic dispute is about. A car is a car. "What kind of brainwashing has made people think that buying a Japanese car is an act of treason? … A car is just something your fellow Chinese people use to get around in, yet you attempt to guess whether or not they have incorrect political opinions or hidden ill-will by what car they use." The difficulties of being a writer when anything you say can be taken as traitorous. "In this country that specializes in producing patriots, the biggest difficulty of a writer isn't how to make one's work better or to discover novel things in life, but foremost how not to seem like a traitor. One must be careful, lest a slip of the pen somehow surrender a third of the country. The boundaries of writing more or less coincide with the borders of the nation, and every stroke of a key apparently will incite social unrest… in the end, one is reduced to trying to please people instead of imparting knowledge." The boycotts and car-smashing haven't inconvenienced Japan yet, but they have terrorized Chinese people.  To call oneself a "traitor" to China is dangerous right now, but Li Chengpeng does not seem afraid. Via Netease "Some might say that even though it's difficult, we must still boycott Japan, if only to clarify our stance and frighten the Japanese. But you wouldn't really believe that a few demonstrations in a few dozen cities would frighten them. No, the Japanese aren't frightened; you're the one frightened when you see those wrench- and brick-wielding people coming to smash things." Why just boycott Japan? It's not the only country that's wronged China. "Germany, Britain and France were the culprits who burned the Old Summer Palace [in 1860]; Italy was allied with them; the U.S. was the original architect of this whole [Diaoyu/Senkaku] mess … If we refuse to do business with everyone who has ever been our enemy, then because there are so many, we will be reduced in the end to building car factories with the North Koreans." Where's the (self) love? "The Diaoyu Islands are China's; China is ours; we are more important than the Diaoyu Islands. To love yourself is to love the country. I see some media talking about nuclear bombs as an option; while some people, their faces full of radiant–or is it radioactive?– pride, say, 'Even if the mainland is reduced to grass, we must still regain the Diaoyu Islands. It's not an impossible wish – if you don't mind life having to evolve all over again from the start." Conclusion: the "boycott" is a useless exercise. "China wants to be f***ing awesome, but some Chinese people always use f***ing awful methods to try to achieve it. … Japanese-branded car owners feel like they've wronged China, though next time they still won't buy bad Chinese cars; some people have burned [automotive service] stores; rumor has it that some stole Rolexes, smashed Austrian pianos, protested Japan in front of Korean restaurants… what an international movement. Yet Japan has not been harmed at all." Li finishes with a flourish, "These are the confessions of a traitor."     |
| The Daily Twit – 9/19/12: Protest Switch Turned to “Off” Position Posted: 19 Sep 2012 04:56 AM PDT If there's one thing you gotta admire about the Chinese government, it's the ability to control these nationalist demonstrations. Today was no exception, as yesterday's well-coordinated anti-Japanese protests were dialed down and things got back to normal. It's actually rather surprising when one considers that China experiences many thousands of unplanned, unscheduled and unwanted "mass incidents" every year. While there wasn't a lot of news today about what didn't happen in terms of demonstrations, yesterday's controlled protests are a useful measuring stick. Check out Tom Lasseter's description for McClatchy: China asserts control over anti-Japan protesters, allowing fruit throwing but not arson. From here on out, there will be two things to look for: 1) how will China and Japan ultimately settle the dispute; and 2) how will this whole thing effect business between the two nations. On the latter issue, some good general background in the LA Times: Economic stakes high in China-Japan islands dispute; and a narrow look at one sector in the Wall Street Journal: PE May Get That Sinking Feeling if China-Japan Island Dispute Escalates. The Japanese may already be looking ahead to economic effects of the dispute, as this piece in the Guardian explains: Japan boosts asset purchases as slow demand and China tensions bite. In US-China relations, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta met with China's next leader Xi Jinping. Nothing exciting came out of the meeting, but here's a backgrounder from Reuters: China's Xi meets Panetta, wants better military ties with U.S. Additionally, a new Pew poll shows that folks in the U.S. are worried about China's economic power, which isn't surprising given the rhetoric from the government on the topic for the past several years. Here's a report on the poll from CNN: Americans: China is an economic threat. In other news: Xinhua: Overloaded vehicles caused bridge collapse — This was the conclusion reached from an investigation into last month's bridge failure, which was roundly criticized by many because of suspected shoddy construction. Funny how these official investigations always determine that the bridge collapse/plane crash/train crash, etc. was due to human error. Global Times: Court warns against collusion in lawsuits — Not exactly news, but rather an odd thing to see. This was a press release issued by a local court in Shanghai, which apparently thought it was important to remind everyone not to play fast and loose with the judicial process. Does that mean that bribery, fake lawsuits and other games are on the rise? Wall Street Journal: Foreign Firms Line Up to List in China — Just for the record, I've been hearing this same story for literally the past ten years, that foreign-invested enterprises will soon be allowed to list domestically. Now they're saying 2013. I'll believe it when I see it. Why foreign companies would wish to get caught up in the freakish ecosystem of one of China's stock exchanges, I have no idea. The Guardian: Burberry stops handbag production in Chinese factory in ethics row — The latest multinational to have serious China labor issues. In this case, instead of sticking with the local factory and waiting until it cleans up its act, Burberry is just saying goodbye. I assume they have alternative facilities, something that other MNCs do not always have. Xinhua: Scholar defends China's reform of monopoly industries — Over the past few years, particularly since China's Anti-monopoly Law was implemented and certain government agencies (e.g. NDRC) have become more aggressive with oversight, lot of people have wondered what will happen with China's administrative/SOE monopolies. Do they remain compatible with the changing system? Well, at least one scholar says yes and warns folks not to expect radical privatization. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:28 AM PDT Shelley Jiang from Tea Leaf Nation blogs about the painful cost of development in China - the increasing number of cancer villages all over the country:
Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0) |
| Porn Star Appeals for China/Japan Friendship Posted: 19 Sep 2012 01:17 AM PDT Popular Japanese porn star Sola Aoi appealed for friendship between Chinese and Japanese early last week when the tension between China and Japan elevated. But her friendly gesture was not well received. (more…) Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0) |
| A Very Confusing Op/Ed on the Intertubes, the Middle East and the Great Satan Posted: 19 Sep 2012 12:30 AM PDT
With that out of the way, let's turn to the Op/Ed itself. Upon reading the column, my first reaction was utter confusion. There are parts of the Op/Ed that make sense, others that don't, but when you put it all together, you get a pulsing headache. Although Vltchek is obviously not a native English speaker, the language is not the problem here, but rather the underlying argument. After reading the first paragraph, I thought this was going to be a justification of Net censorship. This would explain why the column was being run in the China Daily:
Fairly straightforward, although I'm not sure who is advocating for the Net to be "totally free." Classic straw man in the very first sentence, which doesn't bode well. Nevertheless, the U.S. touts freedom of speech online and look what happens, its own people get killed as a result. Some of you might be outraged and offended by this, but I would ask you to put that aside for the moment. The basic contention is fair game, even if it is written rather bluntly and perhaps in poor taste. Arguably, if the U.S. had strict content rules against denigrating Muhammad, some of the riots would not have occurred. The author is saying that unregulated speech can have negative consequences, and he throws in a couple more examples from India and Mexico to bolster his point. Again, that's all fine and what I expected after reading the lede. It's not exactly an earth-shattering revelation of an argument, but it's straightforward. About halfway through the Op/Ed, what I thought was the thesis is re-stated:
Again with the straw man. Does the West really refute "any regulation as censorship"? Vltchek is being just a tad bit hyperbolic here for some reason, and it waters down his argument. So far, this seems like the usual justification for Net censorship. I'd call it a juvenile argument for several reasons, chief among them being the author's obvious failure to take into account the benefits of free speech, but at least it's written clearly. But for some inexplicable reason, the Op/Ed then goes off on a very odd tangent, criticizing the U.S. for its hypocrisy on the issue of Net regulation:
Now this is a criticism I actually support. The major channels of news on the Intertubes have become dominated by a handful of corporations, and while there is plenty of diversity online, most folks get their news from the big boys. Same problem with "traditional" news, such as newspapers, television and radio. On the other hand, that is not a free speech issue. Media concentration has more to do with U.S. antitrust law and lobbyists than online speech. While the end result might be fewer voices heard online, market manipulation by private enterprise is very different from government-imposed content restrictions. We're talking apples and oranges here. Moreover, the video that may have sparked some of the riots in the Middle East did not come from The New York Times or Fox News, but from a schmuck who posted it on YouTube which, although it is owned by Google, thrives because of user-generated content. I'm not sure if these two dots can be connected. Vltchek also references U.S. hypocrisy with respect to Wikileaks, which moves completely away from media concentration and back again to government content restrictions. Although I abhor what the U.S. government, and its lackeys, are currently doing to Julian Assange, I'm not sure what the point here is. At the outset, the author argues that unfettered speech can bring about violent incidents, like what's going in the Middle East, and yet now he's saying that U.S. attempts to control the dissemination of national secrets is somehow not acceptable. So which is it? Is the argument here really that: a) free speech as advocated by the U.S. is bad; and 2) U.S. stifling of free speech is also bad? I'm always happy to read a good piece on hypocrisy, but usually there's a point to the exercise other than gratuitous anti-Americanism. Instead of somehow tying Part I about the dangers of Internet freedom to Part II on media consolidation (if that is even possible), we get yet another weird tangent:
I'm not exactly sure what this means, but it sounds a lot like an anti-U.S. conspiracy theory. The U.S. is promoting Net freedom so that it can, what, more effectively get dirt on other countries? Wikileaks aside, is Vltchek saying that the Net is devoid of American criticism? Does he ever read China Hearsay? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like the only consistent thread here is that the U.S. sucks, no matter what it advocates or does. I criticize the U.S. all the time, but I sure hope I don't come across like this guy. Now, you might think that the author had so twisted his arguments around at this point that a concluding sentence would be all but impossible, but no, he gives it a shot:
Now he's coming down on the side of an ad hoc standard for each country, which sounds eminently reasonable. But even the U.S. government supports some restrictions on speech. So again, who is advocating for unfettered Net content? I think Vltchek has constructed a pretty weak straw man here. A more persuasive case could have been made for Net censorship by saying that some restrictions may be necessary and that the U.S. calls for liberalization go too far. I'm not sure why Vltchek did not opt for this more obvious approach, but perhaps the goal was simply to beat up on the U.S. To summarize this confusing Op/Ed: 1. Free speech is dangerous. 2. The U.S. advocates for free speech. 3. Bad things happen to the U.S. as a result. 4. The U.S. should be condemned for media consolidation. 5. The U.S. should be condemned for the Wikileaks affair. 6. The U.S. uses free information on the Intertubes to collect and disseminate dirt on its rivals. 7. But each country should decide for itself. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us |
| Is Global Times Misunderstood? Posted: 18 Sep 2012 11:58 PM PDT A survey of articles in Global Times' International Forum editorial section, conducted by Allen Carlson and Jason Oaks at Cornell University's Government Department, suggests that the newspaper's reputation for hardline nationalism does not tell the whole truth:
See also Christina Larson's Foreign Policy feature on "China's Fox News" and Global Times' response, via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Weibo’s Limits and the Ballad of China’s Middle Class Posted: 18 Sep 2012 11:38 PM PDT Comments from China's microblogs have become a common element of news coverage as concise but colourful illustrations of the popular mood. At Asia Society's ChinaFile, however, Amy Qin points out that Weibo offers an incomplete reflection of Chinese society:
A Weibo post translated by The Atlantic's Yuxin Gao during Saturday's anti-Japanese protests summed up the problem:
The Diaoyu protests may demonstrate the social divide that Qin warns about. Tea Leaf Nation noted on Saturday that Weibo users, though generally supporting China's claim to the disputed islands, "for the most part condemned the vandalism and the violence against Japanese nationals". At The Financial Times, Jamil Anderlini suggests that social class accounts for much of this online/offline divide:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Photo: “Offend the great Han, we will kill you no matter how far,” by Christopher Cherry Posted: 18 Sep 2012 11:24 PM PDT  Anti-Japan protesters: "Offend the great Han, we will kill you no matter how far," © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
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