Links » Cream » How Americans See China

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• How Americans See China
• China’s Female Imams
• The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu Islands
• Photo: Diaoyu Protests: Eating a Lolly, Flipping a Bird, by Christopher Cherry
• Forced to Fire: Netizens Condemn China’s Embrace of Russia
• Word of the Week: Patriotraitor
• Sensitive Words: Anti-Japan Protests (2)
• Ministry of Truth: Hong Kong Elections, Teacher’s Day
• The Daily Twit – 9/19/12: Protest Switch Turned to “Off” Position

How Americans See China Posted: 20 Sep 2012 12:11 AM PDT As the Obama administration takes to the W.T.O ahead of the presidential election, political analysts Richard Wike and Bruce Stokes discuss the gulf between expert and public views of China from the U.S., based on recent Pew polling. From CNN: [… W]hen asked which country represents the greatest danger to the U.S., more Americans volunteer China (26 percent) than name any other country, including Iran and North Korea. And about half (52 percent) view China's emergence as a world power as a major threat to the U.S. […] Nevertheless, the public is divided on what to do about China: 28 percent want the next president to build a strong relationship with Beijing, 24 percent want him to be tough with China on economic and trade issues. […] But, for the most part, foreign affairs experts are far less concerned than the general public about issues related to China. Less than half of the retired military officers and less than a third of the other experts view China's emergence as a world power as a major threat to the U.S.Fewer than four in ten say the loss of U.S. jobs to China, the U.S. trade deficit with China, China's growing military power and China's policies on human rights are very serious problems for the U.S. © Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, presidential election, Sino-U.S. Relations, United States Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

China’s Female Imams Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:49 PM PDT At China File, Kathleen McLaughlin describes China's women-led mosques which, having weathered varying fortunes since the 17th Century, are now struggling to compete with the growing range of opportunities for young Hui Muslims elsewhere. Sangpo, a dusty hamlet about two hours from the capital of China's landlocked Henan province, is home to about 5,000 people, some 95 percent of whom are Hui Muslims. The Hui, China's third-largest ethnic minority, number nearly 10 million followers of Islam in China. Many are direct descendants of Arab traders on the Silk Road who married local Chinese women, but the Hui today are mainly identified through their religion rather than by ethnic characteristics. Packed into this town are six mosques run by women, whose congregants are all female, and only five headed by men—an imbalance the women point out with pride, and a rarity among Muslim communities in China, let alone the rest of the world. This is the heart of a Hui Islamic practice that has been studied, derided, picked apart, and admired by scholars of Islam and of China. There are a few female imams elsewhere in the world, including in Spain, Turkey, and the United States, but for the Hui of Henan, the practice is not an oddity. Rather, it is a widely accepted part of religious life among women that is tolerated by men. A short film on the female imams by McLaughlin and Sharron Lovell can also be found at ChinaFile. China's other major Muslim group, the Uygur (who numbered around 8.6 million, compared with 9.2 million Hui, according to the 2000 Census), also faces serious challenges. Chinese authorities recently staged an exhibition in Istanbul to reassure concerned Turks that all is well. From Matthew Brunwasser at PRI's The World: The exhibition features traditional songs and dances by two Muslim performing groups. The Uygur dancers are dressed in intensely colorful costumes as they perform tightly choreographed songs and dances. But unlike the music, and the rosy picture painted by the government official, life for Uygurs in China isn't especially joyful. "I don't want to speak Chinese," says a Uygur émigré I spoke to at the performance. She didn't want to use her name, fearing reprisals against her family in Xinjiang. She says the Chinese government is trying to wipe out the Uygur language. "I'm afraid for the future. I fear for the Uygur language that everyone will forget it everywhere it's only Chinese," she says. The woman says the Chinese government is trying to assimilate Uygurs by force, eliminating Uygur-language education and giving economic opportunities only to the majority ethnic Han Chinese. Kaifeng, noted in McLaughlin's article as a training centre for imams, is also home to a community of Chinese Jews descended from 11th Century traders. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: hui, islam, kaifeng, muslim, muslims, religion, Silk Road, Uyghurs, women leaders, Xinjiang Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu Islands Posted: 19 Sep 2012 11:49 PM PDT In a guest post on Nicholas Kristof's New York Times blog, Han-Yi Shaw, a research fellow at Taipei's National Chengchi University, argues that Japanese historical documents support China's claim to the Diaoyu Islands—or, at least, Taiwan's. Collectively, these official documents leave no doubt that the Meiji government did not base its occupation of the islands following "on-site surveys time and again," but instead annexed them as booty of war. This is the inconvenient truth that the Japanese government has conveniently evaded. Japan asserts that neither Beijing nor Taipei objected to U.S. administration after WWII. That's true, but what Japan does not mention is that neither Beijing nor Taipei were invited as signatories of the San Francisco Peace Treaty in 1951, from which the U.S. derived administrative rights. When Japan annexed the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands in 1895, it detached them from Taiwan and placed them under Okinawa Prefecture. Moreover, the Japanese name "Senkaku Islands" itself was first introduced in 1900 by academic Kuroiwa Hisashi and adopted by the Japanese government thereafter. Half a century later when Japan returned Taiwan to China, both sides adopted the 1945 administrative arrangement of Taiwan, with the Chinese unaware that the uninhabited "Senkaku Islands" were in fact the former Diaoyu Islands. This explains the belated protest from Taipei and Beijing over U.S. administration of the islands after the war. Shaw's argument should really be read in its entirety. Kristof has invited Japanese scholars to respond.  See more on the heated Diaoyu Islands dispute via CDT. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: diaoyu islands, history, Japan, qing dynasty, Taiwan, territorial disputes Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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 Post tags: Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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: OneCharacterHunk: In spite of Russia's endless abuse, I embrace her with the passion of a first love. 一 字眉帅哥：俄罗斯虐我千百遍，我待俄罗斯如初恋 BeijingZhuWeimin: "Being forced" to do something—this is officialese. I can see this generating a whole new new linguistic trend: forced to be corrupt, forced to lie, forced to have mistresses, forced to rape, forced to murder… It has universal application, just like the tenets of Marxism-Leninism. 北京朱维民: ＂被迫＂这来自官方的词汇，将引领当今汉语新潮流：被迫腐败，被迫说谎，被迫包二奶，被迫强奸，被迫杀人••••如同马列主义放之四海而皆准。 LawyerChenGang: China whole-heartedly serves foreign peoples.* 当律师的陈刚:全心全意为外民服务 *This is a play on Mao Zedong's populist slogan, "Serve the people." ABaoPerfectStudentLife: When the people need the angry youth, the angry youth are nowhere to be found. 阿宝背书的美好生活: 当群众需要愤青的时候，愤青们反而不出现了。 kds16: The monkeys* are forced to delete posts, under-aged girls are forced to go whoring, houses are forced to be demolished, society is forced to be harmonious. kds16：猴子被迫删帖 幼女被迫嫖宿 房子被迫强拆 社会被迫和谐 * Refers to BBS and microblog administrators. WestGateNotDark: My eyes are bleeding. I thought this was something a Russian diplomat said. 西门不暗:眼睛看花了，还以为这话是俄罗斯外交官说的 OldWolfBrother: These are the words of my country's consulate? Seems to me like the Russian consulate wrote it! 老狼大哥： 这是我领事馆说的话？感觉是俄国使馆通稿啊啊啊啊啊啊！ StarPeople: Not worth it to subject "trouble-makers" to regular inspection. Friendly forces would never fire unless forced to do so. 星空亿人： "刁民"不配合别人正常检查，友军被迫才开火。 LieFengCZJA: Heh heh, looks like our country's fishing boat first fired two maneuverable harpoons, then fired two heat-seeking fishnets and then threw out a nuclear fishhook. The Russian patrol boat was forced to fire! 烈风CZJA:呵呵，看样子是我国渔船首先发射两枚巡航鱼叉，再发射两枚热能追踪渔网，最后甩出核动力鱼钩，俄国导弹巡航舰被迫开火了! BVB_12SuXimeng: Why does it seem like this statement should be coming from the Russians? Maybe our country lost some kind of bet… BVB_12号蘇西蒙： 怎么看这则通告也该是俄方该说的吧！本国政府输掉底裤了吧 NanjingGuodong: One day, a person was walking past his neighbor's door when the neighbor came out and asked to inspect the person's pockets. The person refused, and the neighbor was forced to beat him. This person's family was very angry and blamed the person for the incident, demanding he admit his wrongdoing! 南京郭侗： 某人去邻居家门口路过，邻居说我要检查你的口袋，某人拒绝，邻居被迫打了某人，某人家属表示愤怒，对某人强烈谴责，并要求某人认错！ Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Little Bluegill. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: anti-Japan protests, BBS, Khabarovsk, Mao Zedong, Netizen Voices, netizens, Russia, sina weibo, territorial disputes, weibo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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. 爱国贼 (àiguózéi): Patriotraitor A play on the word "traitor" (卖国贼 màiguózéi), a patriotraitor is someone who betrays his/her country's interests while outwardly professing patriotism. Netizens pejoratively refer to people who are uncritically nationalistic as either patriotraitors or shit youth; a patriotraitor has more of an ulterior motive and puts on more of an act than a shit youth. 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 Post tags: Barack Obama, fudan university, GMH Lexicon, grass-mud horse lexicon, Internet censorship, netizens, word of the week Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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 Post tags: anti-japan demonstrations, anti-Japan demonstrations 2012, anti-Japan protests, Arab Spring, blocked words, censorship, filtered words, Internet censorship, jasmine revolution, sensitive words, sina weibo, weibo Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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. Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China: (1) Strictly adhere to Xinhua copy in reporting on Hong Kong's legislative elections. Do not hype the elections. (2) All media must cease negative reporting and commentary about Teacher's Day [September 10]. (September 11, 2012) 中宣部：1.对香港立法会选举，严格按新华社通稿刊播，不炒作； 2.各媒体不再对教师节作负面报道评论。 © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Hong Kong, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, Xinhua Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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 Post tags:

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