| Top Press Official Dismissed On Corruption Charge Posted: 18 Oct 2012 11:27 PM PDT Raymond Li at The South China Morning Post reports that Jiao Li, one of the top propaganda officials in China, has been dismissed from his administrative position and possibly stripped of his CCP membership amid swirling rumors of corruption and sex scandals: A mid-ranking CCTV official, who declined to be named, said yesterday that Jiao, who became the state broadcaster's president in May 2009, had been unpopular for introducing a number of controversial measures, including a drastic pay cut. [...] The CCTV official said Jiao had been caught in the political crossfire over the fallout from a blaze at CCTV's new headquarters in Beijing in February 2009 that led to the removal of his predecessor, Zhao Huayong. She said rumours were also rife inside CCTV about Jiao's possible involvement in corruption and sex scandals, including his ties to a well-known mainland folk singer. [...] Some analysts said Jiao's fall could add more uncertainty to a once-a-decade leadership transfer at the party's 18th national congress early next month by compromising Li's bargaining power in horse-trading over the future leadership line-up and affecting Liu's bid for a place on the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee.
China Copy Right and Media relates the downfall of Jiao with the political ambition of his ally, another top propaganda official, Liu Yunshan: Unfortunately, in this case, most we have to go on are reports by partisan overseas Chinese media, which may not necessarily reliable. However, let's assume, for the sake of the argument, that they are true. This might have interesting consequences for the relationship between the propaganda apparat and the Standing Committee. Propaganda is, together with discipline inspection and personnel appointments, one of the three large supporting pillars of the Party, and the head of the propaganda apparat has been a Standing Committee member since 1989, when the structure was overhauled. There has been an increasing emphasis on media and culture in recent years but until now, the institutions in those fields have generally been staffed by the conservative side of the Party. It is not unimaginable to think that in the raging political crisis, control over propaganda, and therefore the tools of public opinion guidance, has been one of the major points of conflict for the next round of appointments. Also, political battles in China often are fought through underlings. For example, Chen Liangyu's dismissal in 2003 signalled Hu Jintao's consolidation of power over the Shanghai faction, while the dismissal of his right hand man Ling Jihua was considered to be a great weakening of his power. It seems inconceivable that Jiao's dismissal, especially at this time, has nothing to do with Liu Yunshan's Standing Committee aspirations. However, there are different options. Liu might now be out of the running for one of the spots, but it might also be the case that Jiao's dismissal is part of a compromise in which Liu will succeed Li Changchun, but will be beholden to other factions in the Party. One more story on the rumour mill, one more reason to watch the line-up, somewhere by this time next month.
Meanwhile, Mark Mackinnon at The Globe and Mail examines the epidemic of having trophy mistresses within China's elite circle: China's top sexologist calls it the "emperor complex" and says powerful Chinese men seek to accumulate women the same way they desire money and power. "I think it mainly comes form the Chinese tradition of having concubines. Monogamy has only been around for 60 years. But in history, there was nothing wrong with [having mistresses] at all," said Li Yinhe of the state-run Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "Now successful men take mistresses – I would even call it a subculture – as a way of showing off their success." [...] Indeed, a 2007 report prepared for China's top prosecutor drew a direct line between marital indiscretions and misbehaviour in office. Almost 90 per cent of the officials who had been sacked for corruption over the previous five years had mistresses, the report found, with "some keeping several."
© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, corruption, extra-marital affairs, leadership transition, mistresses, political scandal, propaganda, sex scandal
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| Photo: Shaoxing Street – ROSS HONG KONG Posted: 18 Oct 2012 10:52 PM PDT |
| Record Tourist Numbers a Golden Sign for Economy Posted: 18 Oct 2012 09:04 PM PDT Among the reasons that analysts believe China's economy may have begun to stabilize, TIME calls out the record tourist numbers during this month's Golden Week holiday and explores whether Chinese consumers can buoy the country's next phase of growth: Throughout the week, Chinese social media sites were abuzz with reports from disgruntled tourists complaining about lengthy queues, chronic overcrowding, and awful traffic. One popular post on Weibo, China's top social network, featured pictures of tourists stuck in highway traffic jams getting out of their cars to play tennis or host picnics on the road. Another showed pictures of the beaches in the island province of Hainan covered in a thick blanket of tourist-created trash. A third told of a camel that dropped dead of exhaustion after ferrying tourists through the Gobi desert in the northwestern town of Dunhuang. While travelers groaned, though, economists must have been grinning. For months, China-watchers have been worrying about the prospect of a 'hard-landing' for the Chinese economy. China's economic planners have been working to shift China's economy away from reliance on government-funded infrastructure spending and low-value manufacturing and toward a more consumer-driven model of growth. Thus far, their efforts have had limited success, with consumers largely choosing to hold onto their cash rather than fritter it away on discretionary spending. Meanwhile, demand for Chinese-made products from Europe and the US continues to lag, and China analysts are not convinced that the domestic consumers are ready to replace the flagging low-end manufacturing sector. Could the crowds signal that better times are coming? Some are cautiously optimistic. Travelers pumped close to $35 billion into the domestic economy during the 7-day Golden Week period at the start of October, an increase of 45% compared to the same period last year. "People who believe China is mired in a crisis, with slumping growth and falling stock prices, could be shocked by this strong tourism data," Ting Lu, an analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, wrote in a recent report. The promising tourism data, he says, indicates that consumption spending is increasingly shifting towards leisure pursuits.
See also reactions from the economist community to the 3rd quarter and September figures released this week, compiled by The Wall Street Journal's Josh Chin.
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: consumer demand, economic growth, golden week, hard landing, tourism
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| Inside Foxconn Posted: 18 Oct 2012 08:26 PM PDT One day after U.S. Presidential contenders Barack Obama and Mitt Romney came to blows over the impact of Chinese manufacturing on the U.S. economy, James Fallows visited the Shenzhen campus of Foxconn, the world's largest manufacturer of electronics. There he took a series of photos of workers both on and off the factory floor. He will continue to publish additional photos, and an article about Foxconn, in the Atlantic in the near future: By chance, I watched that debate a few miles from where many of those iPads, Macs, and iPhones are made in southern China. The following day — today, Thursday, China time — I was inside the most famous of these outsourcing centers. This is the Foxconn "campus" in the Longhua area of Shenzhen, north of Hong Kong. Some 220,000 people work there; about a quarter of them live on site; and several thousand new employees are recruited, trained, and brought onto staff each week, because turnover at Foxconn and many of these Chinese manufacturing centers is so high. Foxconn has been controversial over the years because of allegations of sweatshop operation and of militaristic surveillance and discipline, plus a wave of worker suicides in 2010. I'll have more to say on the current state of Chinese manufacturing at Foxconn and elsewhere very soon, with a now-very-much-overdue article in the magazine. [...] I am always surprised by things in China, but this day was at the more-surprising-than-usual end of the spectrum
For more images of the Foxconn campus, see photos by Jordan Pouille. See also a post about a recent strike by Foxconn workers in Zhengzhou. Read more about Foxconn via CDT.
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Foxconn, James Fallows, labor conditions, migrant workers
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| “Honeymoon is Over” in Wukan Posted: 18 Oct 2012 07:41 PM PDT The Economist checks in from Wukan, where a small group of villagers protested last month over the lack of progress made by their new leaders in securing the return of their land, and reports that "one-time rebels are now far from happy" about their accomplishments since last year's demonstrations: In late September, just before the anniversary, the village's new officials put up posters accusing "a few individuals with ulterior motives" of trying to foment "civil strife" in Wukan. One village leader, Hong Ruichao, says some of the protesters last month had common interests with the old administration. In their desperation for calm, the former rebels have adopted the conspiratorial language of those against whom they once struggled. Yang Semao, a deputy village chief, says the "honeymoon is over" for his administration, which is responsible for the 8,000-odd permanent residents of Wukan as well as the land interests of another 3,000 or so who have moved elsewhere. He complains about the continuing influence in the village of the leaders he helped throw out (the top two were expelled from the party and fined, but to many villagers' chagrin were not jailed). He also accuses unnamed higher-level officials "in cahoots with the mafia" of obstructing the village's efforts to reclaim land that was sold off. Less than 60% of the nearly 450 hectares (1,100 acres) that the government says should be returned has been given back. Some villagers say higher levels of government have understated how much land should be handed over. Residents are bitterly divided over what to do with the land they have recovered. On September 30th the new democratically elected village assembly met to vote on the issue. Twenty-five of the 80 or so representatives who turned up, including Mr Yang, who chaired the meeting, were in favour of keeping the returned land together in several large plots and sharing revenue from renting it out or developing it. Sixteen wanted to divide the land up among villagers. The rest abstained. A two-thirds majority of all the village's 109 representatives is needed to pass a resolution, so no decision was reached. Mr Yang says the assembly will meet again later this year or early next to have another go.
See also previous CDT coverage of last year's Wukan protests and the challenges now facing the village leaders:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: democracy, Guangdong, land grab protests, land grabs, village elections, Wukan
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| Beijing Flags at Half-Staff for Cambodian King Posted: 18 Oct 2012 12:10 PM PDT  On October 17, flags were flown at half-staff at Tiananmen Square and Zhongnanhai in mourning for former King of Cambodia Norodom Sihanouk, who passed away in Beijing on the 15th. Ruling from his country's independence from French Indochina in 1953 until he was deposed in 1970, Sihanouk supported the Khmer Rouge until its leaders forced him out of office. He lived in exile in North Korea and China to the early 1990s, returning to Beijing frequently from 1993 on for medical treatment. Faced with declining health, Sihanouk abdicated to his son in 2004 and spent much of the rest of his life in China.
According to the newspaper Southern Daily (@南方日报), China also lowered the flag for Stalin, Ho Chi Minh, Kim Il-Sung and several other foreign leaders who were either communist or connected to the Soviet Union. Netizens reacted to this national period of mourning with a mixture of anger and confusion. Many had never heard of this "old friend of the Chinese people" before. Others asked why the same respects were not paid to the Chinese people who have been the victims of natural and man-made disasters in recent months. Quoting a tongue-and-cheek song by folk singer Zhang Weiwei, online cartoonist @MurongAoao (@慕容嗷嗷) derided Beijing's paying of respects: MurongAoao: My love for you runs deep, yet you, in return, love those stupid c*nts. Oh! And you're flying the flag at half-staff for those stupid c*nts too… 慕容嗷嗷：我深深的爱着你~~你却爱着那些傻逼~~~哦~~~还为傻逼降半旗~~~~
Danwei translated a searing post by @ju11hua (@菊十一画), since removed from Weibo: ju11hua: After the [Wenzhou] train crash, the flag did not fly at half mast, after the Beijing floods, the flag did not fly at half mast, nor after the Shaanxi traffic accident, nor the great Tianjin fire,* nor the Yiliang [Yunnan] earthquake… A foreign layabout dies, and we fly the flag at half mast. This friendship leaves me speechless. 菊十一画：动车失事没降半旗，北京暴雨没降半旗，陕西车祸没降半旗，天津大火没降半旗，彝良地震没降半旗。。。一个吃闲饭的外国人死了，我们为他降半旗，这交情，真是莫言了。 * CDT added the translation of the phrase 天津大火没降半旗 ("nor the great Tianjin fire"), which is absent from the Danwei translation.
CDT Chinese collected these comments on Sihanouk's passing and the state of affairs in China: PlaywrightFanXin: The flag flies at half-staff in the capital, yet the citizens of the country don't know why. This fact alone is the biggest joke in the world. You tell me: is there anything more ridiculous? Why is your whole nation in mourning? I don't know! 编剧范昕：一个国家首都降半旗，该国百姓居然不确定是因为什么，这本身就是世界最大的滑稽。你告诉我还有什么比这个更扯的？你举国致哀是为啥？不知道！ Blacklisted: The national flag is like a totem and the flag-raising ceremony is like totem worship. Stay far away from witchcraft and take good care of yourself! You can laugh at it from afar, but don't get mixed up with it! Raising, lowering, lowering, raising–it's nothing but interest groups amusing themselves. 黑名单里来的人：国旗就是图腾，升旗仪式是图腾崇拜，远离巫术，珍爱自我，只看笑话不掺和，起起落落，都不过是利益集团的自娱自乐。 LawyerQianJulei: Is this a diplomatic joke? Or is it an internal affairs joke? 钱炬雷律师：外交笑话？还是内政笑话？ XingfaHanFriend: I honestly have no idea what good this Cambodian King-Father we support has ever done for China or for the world! 刑法韩友谊: 真不知中国人供养的柬国太上皇对中国或世界做了什么贡献！ GuotaijunAnchenbin: I don't have the energy to comment on this. 国泰君安陈兵：没力气，不评论 ILikeLaifen: What people? The Celestial Empire doesn't have a people. We only have the trouble-making masses. How stupid would it be to lower the flag for them? 偶喜欢濑粉：什么人民，天朝没有人民只有刁民，对刁民降半旗傻了么~ MournfulFallWater: This was a fundamental policy of the Qing Dynasty: "I'd rather deal with my allies than the slaves of my own house." 萧秋水: 大清政府向来奉行＂宁与友邦，不与家奴＂的基本国策。 Aflie: I'd just like to meekly ask: Who? Alfie-：弱弱地问一句'谁啊 Fahaobuyi: It's like they're preemptively lowering the flag for themselves… 法号布衣：他们这是提前为自己降的… Zhoukaiming2031: So, as I was saying, you can see who this country really belongs to… 周凯明2031：所以说啊 看出来了吧 这是谁的国 lOvELion: Sigh… Just don't raise it at all. 谢强_lOvELion熊UBaby：哎。。。。。别升起来了。
Read more comments at CDT Chinese. Translation of all comments excluding @ju11hua's by Little Bluegill. "Netizen Voices" is an original CDT series. If you would like to reuse this content, please follow the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 agreement.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cambodia, Netizen Voices, Norodom Sihanouk
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| “Protecting China’s Natural Habitat Feels Like a Game” Posted: 18 Oct 2012 11:08 AM PDT In a new short documentary, 'Hopeful', Jonah Kessel shows the work of environmental NGO Friends of Nature in using new laws to hold companies accountable for their pollution. The film focuses on a Yunnan "cancer village" and Friends of Nature activist Chang Cheng, who says: "Sometimes trying to protect China's natural habitat feels like playing a game, because we have an opponent. Every time we advance, so do they. Sometimes it feels as though we cannot move at all. But there are still those of us who remain hopeful." Xing Long Village in Southern China's Yunnan Province was once a peaceful farming community. But when a factory dumped 5,000 tons of chromium 6 into a nearby reservoir, cancer rates in the village skyrocketed. The environmental damage and human suffering caused by the illegal disposal of chemicals has been devastating and largely unnoticed. However, an NGO in Beijing 3,000 miles away aims to put responsibility back on the factory. And a new amendment to Chinese law is giving them hope. The law states: "In instances where the public interest is threatened, such as environmental pollution or violation of consumers' rights, relevant organs or social organizations may file suit at the People's Courts." Now, the NGO has teamed up with pro bono lawyers to represent the environment and the town in a public interest law suit. It will be the first time in Chinese history a Chinese court will here an NGO in a class action case.
See also an interview about the film at chinadialogue.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cancer village, documentaries, environmental laws, environmental litigation, Friends of Nature, videos, water pollution, Yunnan
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| A Visual Guide to Chinese Air Pollution Posted: 18 Oct 2012 10:23 AM PDT At The Atlantic, Tea Leaf Nation's Charles Zhu interviews Michael Zhao of China Air Daily, which uses photos and satellite images to illustrate day-to-day changes and longer term trends in air quality. You also include several U.S. cities — what was the reason for that? The reason I included U.S. cities is because people who have not gone overseas can't really see what a blue sky is. And when they can click through all the days in New York and Chicago, they can see that skies can be really blue and for a long time. That's an interesting comparison. […] What's there to be hopeful about? I want to mention that my boss grew up in New York in the '40s and '50s and what he has been telling me is that when he was a kid, the air was very bad in New York City. There were all these smoggy days and when he woke up he could see a layer of soot and dust on the windowsill because New York was burning coal to heat up homes […] I look at some of the photos from archives, I don't feel that New York then was as bad as Beijing now. But the point I'm trying to get at is that it's a very interesting project to be able to capture at this point in time in China with a few sample cities just to show day-by-day what air quality looks like. And I'm pretty sure that government and people and NGOs are trying to work together to get better. So maybe in 10, 20 years we'll look back at these photos and people will start to appreciate that. Kind of a "you know what, I think we've done a good job. We've cleaned up, and look at those days." So that is […] wishful thinking but I think it will be really interesting to see that happen.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, air quality, Beijing, blue sky, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, New York, Shanghai, United States
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| Jon Huntsman on China, U.S. & the Presidential Race Posted: 18 Oct 2012 09:47 AM PDT Former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsman talked to Foreign Policy's Isaac Stone Fish about China-bashing campaign rhetoric, Sino-U.S. relations and political sensitivities in China ahead of its looming leadership transition: FP: Are you surprised that China hasn't become a bigger issue in the campaign? JH: Beyond it being used as a political tool rhetorically, we've had very little talk of China at a time when we ought to be having a substantive conversation, because it is the relationship that will matter the most in the 21st century.
[…] I was supposed to be there a month ago giving a speech, but they canceled my [invitation—see below]. Why? Because I talk too much about human rights and American values, and they know that. And at a time of leadership realignment, the biggest deal in 10 years for them, they didn't want the former U.S. ambassador saying stuff that might create a narrative that they would have to fight. I understand that. But when the transition is done, the crazy American ambassador will be let back in, and I can say whatever I want. As they used to tell me when I was over there was "Women zhongguo ye you zhengzhi"—"We have politics too in China."
Huntsman originally said that Chinese authorities had cancelled his visa, but later claimed to have misspoken.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Barack Obama, Jon Huntsman, leadership transition, Mitt Romney, presidential election, Sino-U.S. Relations
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| U.S. Ambassador Visited Tibetans in September Posted: 18 Oct 2012 03:43 AM PDT 
America's ambassador to China has publicly acknowledged a late September visit to China's western frontier, a region which has seen numerous self-immolations by Tibetans in protest of Chinese rule, according to The New York Times: The ambassador, Gary F. Locke, visited two Tibetan monasteries on Sept. 26 as part of a trip to western China. The monasteries, which have not been involved in the 55 self-immolations across the Tibetan plateau since 2009, are in Aba Prefecture of Sichuan Province, the area where almost two-thirds of the Tibetans who have set themselves on fire lived. It was Mr. Locke's first trip as ambassador to a part of China where most of the people are ethnic Tibetans. … "I went to Aba Prefecture to see it for myself," Mr. Locke said in a brief statement in response to questions from The New York Times. "I was struck by the unique Tibetan culture and met many ethnic Tibetans to learn more about how they live and work, such as an 88-year-old monk at one of the monasteries I visited. Ethnic diversity adds richness to a society." He continued, "I hope others will make the same visit."
A U.S. State Department spokeswoman also confirmed Locke's trip on Tuesday, according to the report. The New York Times published the above photo, which originally appeared on Twitter and which shows Locke shaking hands with a Tibetan monk. The South China Morning Post published the photo as well, and reported that Locke may have made the trip with Beijing's approval: Tibetan settlements in China are often off-limits to foreigners. The then executive vice-minister of the Communist Party Central Committee's United Front Work Department, Zhu Weiqun , said last year that China would "never allow foreign forces to interfere in China's internal affairs by any means", when asked whether China would let the European Union send an independent diplomatic team to Tibet. "I never believe it can settle any problem or bring good to its people for foreign forces to interfere in the internal affairs of another country," he said. "On the contrary, it will intensify the contradiction and even lead to wars." Analysts said they believed Locke's trip to Aba was made with Beijing's tacit approval, or at least the approval of the foreign ministry, and signified that Beijing wanted to adopt a more flexible approach in dealing with Tibetans.
Locke has enjoyed a positive image during his tenure in Beijing, receiving praise in the media and among Chinese netizens for his frugality on more than one occasion. No comment has emerged so far from China's Foreign Ministry, but Sina.com published its take on the news: Since taking office as the first Chinese-American envoy to China, Gary Locke has expressed too much of his "great interest" about the so-called human rights situation in China. Analysts say Locke, putting on an act of being low-profile and close to the grassroots, will present a stark contrast with some Chinese officials. Locke has thus devised the image campaign to touch ordinary people's soft sopts and also show America as a "democracy" model to the Chinese people. What he has done thus far since he set foot on the Chinese soil is well beyond a professional diplomat's scope of mission. Rather, as a politician and show person, he seems so accustomed to reaching out to something that could and would not fall within his territory. Much to his dismay, many achievements he has been seeking after are actually beyond attainment.
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Foreign Ministry, Gary Locke, netizens, ngaba, self-immolations, Sichuan Province, sina.com, Sino-U.S. Relations, Tibet protests
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
| Study Shows Shifting Anxieties in China Posted: 18 Oct 2012 03:06 AM PDT Lily Kuo and Ritchie King of Quartz break down the results of a just-released China public opinion survey by Pew Research Center, which revealed changing attitudes toward income inequality, corruption, the U.S. and other quality of life issues. Specifically, they present a graphic that shows how concern over certain issues has changed since 2008: But the latest Pew survey of 3,177 Chinese residents finds that many Chinese have grown more anxious over the past four years–only 59% said they like the pace of modern life, down from 72% in 2008. The economy has grown at an average of around 9% per year over these four years–in fact, 70% of the respondents said they are better off financially than they were 5 years ago–but it turns out growth isn't all that matters. 
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: education, food safety, healthcare, inflation, Pew Global Attitudes Survey, public opinion
Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall
 |
Comments