Blogs » Politics » Democracy Fails to Thrive in Wukan
Blogs » Politics » Democracy Fails to Thrive in Wukan |
- Democracy Fails to Thrive in Wukan
- Netizen Voices: Shandong Pollution Hypocrisy
- Photo: Village outskirts, Chongqing, by Chris Aston
- China plans new system for patients to pay after treatment
- Washed Up CIO
- Zhao Wei Enjoys Fashion Show in London
- PSY TAKES A RIDE WITH LIN CHI-LING
- Hexie Farm (蟹农场): The Anchor of Political Reform
- On China’s Twitter, Discussion of Hacking Attacks Proceeds Unblocked
- Blockbuster Growth in China’s Film Industry
- Young Boys Found Dead in Guizhou Shack
- Bureaucratic Red Tape Chokes Free Markets in India
- Who’s to Blame for China’s Growing Trust Deficit?
- Watch: Les Mis as Peking Opera
- Report Claims Hacker Group Linked To People’s Liberation Army
- Morally degenerate equivocators
- China Gets Serious About Diagnosing Online Game Addiction. I Am Not Making This Up.
- Hollywood Uneasy as SEC Remains Silent
- Huawei Denies Role in Singapore Project
| Democracy Fails to Thrive in Wukan Posted: 19 Feb 2013 11:11 PM PST Following widespread protests in 2011 in Wukan, Guangdong over a government land-grab, the provincial government agreed to elections to nominate new village leaders. Despite initial enthusiasm over what was perceived as a "wholly transparent, completely open, democratic election," and a watershed moment for grassroots democracy in China, reality has been a bit messier. Villagers have been discouraged by the new leaders' failure to resolve their problems, while new village leaders are themselves now acknowledging that the experiment in Wukan has failed. From Off Beat China:
Tea Leaf Nation has more on other problems now confronting Wukan:
Some observers on weibo have blamed China's political system for the failures of democracy in Wukan to thrive. From Tea Leaf Nation:
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Netizen Voices: Shandong Pollution Hypocrisy Posted: 19 Feb 2013 10:18 PM PST In response to widespread outrage on Weibo over allegations that companies were pumping industrial waste deep underground to avoid pollution regulations, environmental protection officials in Weifang City, Shandong Province announced a whopping 100,000 yuan (approximately US$16,000) reward to the first citizen to produce verifiable evidence of the "unscrupulous" practice. Not long after the prize was made public, media personality and environmental activist Deng Fei posted a weibo claiming that a moratorium on coverage of the pollution scandal had already been imposed by local newspaper Qilu Evening News. Deng also expressed concern that local authorities would lobby Beijing to prohibit reporting on the topic nationally.
Via CDT Chinese. Translated by Little Bluegill. © Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Photo: Village outskirts, Chongqing, by Chris Aston Posted: 19 Feb 2013 08:04 PM PST  Village outskirts, Chongqing © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| China plans new system for patients to pay after treatment Posted: 19 Feb 2013 10:33 AM PST
China's health authorities have introduced a new medical payment method that allows patients to "pay after" they receive treatment. Currently, Chinese citizens must pay first and then apply for a 70 percent reimbursement covered by medical insurance. Hospitals are said to be welcoming the new method. Hu Jing, who's a department head at a county hospital, says now they won't have to go after patients for the bills. "In the past, we had a manager as a debt collector. Any patients waiting to receive an operation would first fill out a form about their medical costs. Their family will then take the form and pay the bill before the patients get their operations. The practice was likely to cause disputes between patients and medical providers." Once the new system is implemented, patients will receive treatment first and then only pay the part not included in the medical insurance. The rest will be paid by the government. The new "pay after" plan is expected to be implemented in over 20 provinces later this year. The Health Ministry says it won't be adopted nationwide yet, due to an immature social credit and medical insurance system. Source: CRIenglish |
| Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:29 AM PST Tracy Mitrano, the Director of IT policy and Institute for Computer Policy and Law at Cornell University applauded Oxford University's decision to turn off Google Docs. Not long ago, the IT Department turned off Facebook Access for Maryland's state delegates' offices. The problem for Mitrano alike CIOs are 1) lack of technical insights; 2) lack of understanding of role of IT departments. Mitranos do not understand they can't turn off the Internet. From the born of computers, they are not perfect. Programmers and users live with known weaknesses and shortcomings of computer systems. The mission of IT department is to support and facilitate the workflow of production groups. In the case of Mitrano, her job is created to help students and faculty at Cornell University to access, exchange and disseminate ideas. Instead, she acted like a small town cop, who is obsessed with the power to stop a car at her own discretion. Having known what was purported as the risks of using service such as Google Docs, a CIO should not rush to the easy solution. Mitrano was shocked to read about the listed 'issues' with Google Docs, an informed reader would be amazed to vision her reaction if she were told of Windows operating system's thousands of known and documents bugs. As a matter of fact, Windows is an exemplary well maintained system thanks to Microsoft's army of developers. Any major software products including key server products are running with thousands of known bugs and often known security vulnerabilities. Google has the resource to patch any obvious ones. A qualified CIO should work with Google to help the users she is supposed to serve, instead of enjoy the sensation of blocking their access to key software. Instead of shutting down Google Docs, a qualified CIO should ask questions and find out the usage patterns of her users. She should educate and warn users of potential risks. She should identify the technical intricacies and work out an in-house temporary patch before the vendor's next service release. It's a pity that such a position is filled with people who has no technical background, no service experience, but only big mouth agenda and (even worse) genuine fear of technology because of lack of technical depth. It's a disservice to the academic community and the University.  |
| Zhao Wei Enjoys Fashion Show in London Posted: 19 Feb 2013 09:18 AM PST Chinese actress Zhao Wei attends the Burberry Prorsum show during London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/14 on Monday, February 18, 2013. Chinese actress Zhao Wei (right) joins French star Melanie Laurent (left) and South Korean actress Kim Hee-sun at the Burberry Prorsum show during London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/14 on Monday, February 18, 2013. Chinese actress Zhao Wei (right) joins French star Melanie Laurent (left) and South Korean actress Kim Hee-sun at the Burberry Prorsum show during London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013/14 on Monday, February 18, 2013. Source: CRIenglish |
| PSY TAKES A RIDE WITH LIN CHI-LING Posted: 03 Feb 2013 09:09 AM PST When Korean sensation Psy met the pride of Taiwan, Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), to do the world-famous horse riding dance, it was hot, hot, hot. Chi-ling's boobs bobbed and bounced in time to the music, while her 113cm-long legs mesmerized the Gangnam Style singer, who was moved to exclaim: "What a sexy horse!" The two were the highlight of Shanghai-based Dragon TV's Spring Festival Gala that was recorded in the studio on Friday and is scheduled to be broadcast on Lunar New Year's Eve on February 9. Psy's debut performance in China, lasting just 5 minutes, earned him a fat paycheck of 3 million yuan ($481,500). Source: May Daily |
| Hexie Farm (蟹农场): The Anchor of Political Reform Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:28 PM PST For the latest installment in his CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm gives his perspective on prospects for political reform in China. A boat representing reform is prevented from moving forward by the hammer-and-sickle shaped anchor of "one-party dictatorship." Read more about Hexie Farm's CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series. [CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.] © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| On China’s Twitter, Discussion of Hacking Attacks Proceeds Unblocked Posted: 19 Feb 2013 11:41 AM PST As The New York Times reported yesterday evening, U.S.-based cybersecurity firm Mandiant has just released a deeply troubling report called "Exposing One of China's Cyber Espionage Units." The report alleges wide-spread hacking sponsored by the People's Liberation Army, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. The report states, "Our research and observations indicate that the Communist Party of China is tasking the Chinese People's Liberation Army [PLA] to commit systematic cyber espionage and data theft against organizations around the world." In particular, the report fingers the PLA's General Staff Department's 3rd Department, 2nd Bureau–also called Unit 61398–as the main source of such attacks. Mandiant describes the difficulty of finding online references that link Unit 61389 to the Chinese Government. This does not mean, however, that one cannot read Chinese language discussion of Unit 61398. Tea Leaf Nation recently conducted searches for terms related to the Mandiant report on Sina Weibo, China's pre-eminent social media discussion platform, and found them all unblocked. These included "Mandiant," "61398," Chinese terms for the PLA units found to lie behind the hacking ("61398部队," "总参二局," and "总参三部二局"), and words referring to particularized Mandiant terms, such as "Comment Crew" and "Apt1." China's Defense Department promptly replied that it "has never supported any hacking activities," further stating that "hacker attacks are a global problem. Like other countries, China also faces a serious threat from cyber attacks, and is among the world's major victims of hacker attacks." A number of mainstream Weibo outlets carried the news, including China Central Television, or CCTV (@央视新闻), China News (@中国新闻网), and Breaking News (@头条新闻). On China's frequently censored Internet, the current state of play likely reflects a calculation by Chinese authorities that it is better to begin with a public challenge to the Mandiant allegations, perhaps allowing online discussion in order to glimpse how grass-roots Web users react to the official argument. Among several hundred aggregate reactions to the Mandiant report, an outline of preliminary grassroots reaction could be clearly discerned. Perhaps unsurprising in a country where the state remains heavily involved in its media, many commenters evinced a monolithic conception of the United States that linked Mandiant, media outlets, and the U.S. government. In particular, users responding to the CCTV post took a negative tack toward the U.S., telling the "yankees" that "America is always turning a little mirror towards others, and never towards itself!" Others felt that turnabout was fair–or necessary–play. One wrote that the U.S. "has been openly seeking top hackers; [it's] China that has been timid." Another commented, "China has far more people, American technology is better. In an online war, it would be 100 on 1." But the domestic perception of China as an underdog remains, and many simply found it sensible for China's PLA to employ hackers. One wrote, "These days, can an army without hackers even be called an army?" Another observed that hackers were "today's special forces." One user cast hacking as a fact of life: "Where there's an Internet, there will be hackers." Another commented that "hacking attacks have long been a method used by every country." One user sought to put the matter in historical context: "I think the U.S. hyping online warfare is like [President] Reagan's Star Wars [missile defense] program, which was the final straw that broke the Soviet economy." The user compared pursuing online warfare to an arms race in space: "China knows it can't beat the U.S., but it cannot remain uninvolved." Commenters appeared split on whether to be proud or ashamed at the news. One said it was a "loss of face" that the unit had been discovered; another was "proud, but [does] not believe it." As always, Weibo users fancied themselves sleuths. One user astutely noted that there appeared to be a white license plate or two in the New York Times photograph of the Shanghai apartment building from which Mandiant believes many Chinese cyber attacks originate. Chinese Web users are keenly aware that a white plate connotes PLA affiliation. In addition, a number demonstrated the Chinese Web's enduring fascination with Lanxiang (蓝翔), a school in Shandong province. As Tea Leaf Nation reported on January 31, although Lanxiang bills itself as a vocational school and "advertises tirelessly on local television as the training grounds for future tractor drivers, chefs, auto repairmen and hair dressers," Chinese Web users have continued to believe that Lanxiang doubles as a training ground for elite hackers. Despite the evident lack of heavy censorship at this early stage, the volume commentary on this issue has thus far remained thin. While Chinese cyber attacks are deeply troubling to Americans, Chinese Web users must remain constantly aware of authorities monitoring, and sometimes deleting, their own words. In this respect, hacking, or its cousin, censorship, is a fact of life for China's online citizens. That perhaps explains why some users drew an explicit–if humorous–line between hackers and censors. Using the incisive gallows humor so common on the Chinese social Web, one user wrote, "It's a rumor! We don't call them 'hackers,' we call them 'Sina's little secretaries,'" slang for Sina's in-house censors. To one commenter, it actually showed "progress" if the PLA was in fact hacking the U.S.; "Before, the army was only able to oppress Chinese people."         |
| Blockbuster Growth in China’s Film Industry Posted: 19 Feb 2013 11:26 AM PST As Hollywood remains uneasy over the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation into Hollywood companies' practices in China, CNN reports international films swept the top ten highest grossing films in China:
In an attempt to attract fans of the film, 'Titanic,' there are now plans to build a replica of the Titanic in China. From The Hollywood Reporter:
Despite the success of international films in China, Stephen Chow's latest comedy landed in the top spot in the box office during the Spring Festival holiday. From China Daily:
© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Young Boys Found Dead in Guizhou Shack Posted: 19 Feb 2013 11:22 AM PST Chinese state media report five children have died after being found suffocated in Guizhou Province. This comes amid concerns for child safety after five homeless boys were found dead inside a garbage bin in the same province as well as an illegal orphanage fire that left several children dead in Henan, from Xinhua:
AP reports it was unclear why the boys decided to burn the hay:
According to the South China Morning Post, the villagers used the shack to process tobacco, but it has been abandoned. The shack was poorly ventilated and had only one exit. © Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Bureaucratic Red Tape Chokes Free Markets in India Posted: 19 Feb 2013 10:17 AM PST Memo #202 By Subhashish Gupta - sgupta [at] iimb.ernet.in
However, some commentators have argued that the government's obsession with high rates of return from auctions will stifle the burgeoning telecom industry, as the current slow growth of Indian 3G services suggests. This situation reflects an internal conflict in India's development: while the government tries to reap the financial benefits of a free market economy and open competition, it is loath to relinquish its powers over selecting beneficiaries for the distribution of "natural resources," a category including access to the airwaves, according to the Indian Supreme Court. The result is an inefficient resource distribution system. There is a dual system in place. Sometimes the government relies on free market principles, as in public-private partnership projects, and sometimes on administrative action, as in the allocation of coal blocks, and sometimes a mixture of both, as in telecommunications. This muddle is not conducive to business. India is a notoriously difficult place for business activity. For instance, the International Finance Corporation ranks the country 132nd globally for ease of doing business. In response to the confusion and apparent arbitrariness, opposition parties and civil society members raise cries of crony capitalism. The end result is a peculiar situation in which a pro-reform government ignores ease of entry into a market, a fundamental condition for competition to thrive. Opposing political parties and civil society members fulminate against the nature of free markets and the inequalities they produce. They equate market reforms with being anti-poor. Lost amid the din are the beneficial effects of competition in lowering prices and in promoting economic equality. To achieve such aims, the government would do well to design auctions to increase competition and focus less on maximizing revenues. Subhashish Gupta is an associate professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. His research interests include antitrust issues, particularly in telecommunications. If you enjoyed this memo, subscribe to our e-newsletter for free and receive new memos 2+ times per week via email.  Selling Mobile Phones in India (Source: BBC) Links:
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| Who’s to Blame for China’s Growing Trust Deficit? Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:54 AM PST  Pedestrians on Shanghai's busy Nanjing Road. A recent report blames urbanization as a key driver of China's trust deficit. (IceNineJon/Flickr) Is China facing a trust deficit? State media seems to be saying "yes." According to an editorial published yesterday in the print edition of state-run People's Daily titled "Use Trust to Break the Ice," a new survey conducted in seven Chinese cities shows that the Chinese social confidence index has fallen below sixty points. As the Chinese Web site RFI explains, this means that fewer than one in five Chinese people believe the majority of people in their society are trustworthy, while fewer than three in ten people believe that strangers can be trusted. The People's Daily reported that experts attribute this drop to social transformation in the ways that Chinese people interact. The article reminisces back to times when Chinese enjoyed their neighborhood, and parents would go out and leave their children and keys to their apartment with their neighbors. In sharp contrast, the article reports, today neighbors install security doors and windows, and the mantra "don't talk to strangers" has become the norm. The People's Daily attributes this breakdown in social interactions to China's rapid and "inevitable" urbanization, which it says degrades mutual trust. The editorial warns that whether or not the study is accurate, social integrity requires urgent attention: China needs to promote governmental integrity in order to strengthen trust between the people and the entire community. A stronger legal system and laws will help to improve trust. But in order to combat a society of strangers, the people also need to continue to communicate with one another, exchange greetings, and organize neighborhood festivals and activities. Rapid urbanization has upset old bonds, but the editorial puts the onus on individual Chinese to build new ones. Let the finger pointing begin While users of microblogging platform Sina Weibo affirmed the massive social changes the article describes, by and large they appear not to believe that the lack of trust begins with the nation's citizens. Instead, they have pointed their collective finger at China's ruling government. @萧峵 wrote that if changes need to occur to combat a lack of trust in Chinese society, then "the ruling party and its mouthpiece should do the first self-criticism." @-流年似梦- summed up the general consensus among commenters:"The government is everyone's familiar stranger." A lack of trust between netizens and government officials has grown deep in recent years, amidst high-profile local-level corruption cases, many of which have been brought to the government's attention by Web users. These so-called "netizens" have taken it upon themselves to actively ferret out examples of Chinese officials living beyond their means and advocating for citizens wronged by those who purport to represent them. Transparency International, a global coalition fighting against government corruption, gave China a score of 39/100 on its corruption perception index, which ranks China 80 out of 176 countries. Most netizens commenting on the People's Daily's post denounced officialdom as the cause of alienation in modern China. @晨依思 remarked that the government was the "root cause of the problem" and that society should "now look to officials" to fix it. @瑟调琴弄 asked, "If the rulers are untrustworthy, how can you build integrity?" Some agree with the People's Daily's argument that a stronger legal system would improve trust in society. @段郎说事 wrote in support, "Apply the rule of law, use the system to resolve social alienation." But a larger number believe that strengthening the legal system shouldn't aim to correct problems among the people, but should fix problems within government. @hjk4321-1 wrote, "If you want to work with iron, you must be tough yourself." The phrase means that one must be ideologically sound to perform arduous work. With trust waning in Chinese society, Web users seem to agree that neighborhood parties and friendly greetings are not going to be enough to combat the problem. If China hopes to achieve a strong level of trust among its people, the government would do well to listen to netizen calls to increase government transparency and strengthen ties between officials and the people. As Weibo user @草根皆尘 put it, trust is "based on mutual trust; we first need to remove the mask." [h/t Bill Bishop]     |
| Watch: Les Mis as Peking Opera Posted: 19 Feb 2013 08:17 AM PST  Jean Valjean and Cosette in the Peking Opera Version of Les Mis Hugh Jackman is not the only one doing a new take on Jean Valjean. Les Misérables has been turned into a Peking opera and posted online. This version of the Victor Hugo classic was written by students at the National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts in 2006. If Mulan can become a Disney classic, there is no reason that Les Mis cannot become a Peking opera favorite. But what's next? The Peking opera version of Hamlet already made its debut at the Edinburgh International Festival. @笑语嫣嫣 tweeted on Sina Weibo, "I think we can expect to see the Peking opera version of Pirates of the Caribbeans."
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| Report Claims Hacker Group Linked To People’s Liberation Army Posted: 19 Feb 2013 07:51 AM PST In the recent string of hacking attacks against American newspapers, government departments and other organizations, the difficulty of definitively attributing such actions has been a recurring theme. Chinese authorities have repeatedly denounced accusations of state-sponsored hacking on this basis. A new report (PDF) from information security firm Mandiant claims, however, that it has identified a well-known group of hackers as a unit of China's People's Liberation Army. The group, known as Comment Crew or APT1 (Advanced Persistent Threat 1), is said to be Unit 61398, the 2nd Bureau of the 3rd Department of the P.L.A.'s General Staff Department. Its members have reportedly stolen huge quantities of sensitive data in at least 140 separate attacks since 2006. From David E. Sanger, David Barboza and Nicole Perlroth at The New York Times:
The Mandiant report provides details of three "personas" believed to be part of APT1, "in an effort to underscore there are actual individuals behind the keyboard." (See also Bloomberg Businessweek's recent 'A Chinese Hacker's Identity Unmasked', via CDT, on an alleged hacker identified as a teacher at a P.L.A. university.) The most dramatic of the released materials is a narrated video purportedly showing one of these hackers at work: Searches for "Unit 61398″ were quickly blocked on Sina Weibo, while a BBC team filming near the unit's headquarters was detained and had their footage confiscated. The Telegraph's Tom Phillips also visited the area:
Reuters was also there, and escaped with its video intact: Mandiant has previously drawn criticism for declining to share information with others in the security community, according to a profile at Bloomberg Businessweek earlier this month. In the report, the authors explain the reasoning for releasing their findings this time(PDF).
Criticism has already started to emerge. Security analyst Jeffrey Carr has written that the report contains "critical analytical flaws": Mandiant, he argues, failed to prove that APT1 and Unit 61398 are one and the same, or to consider alternative explanations for their observations.
When questioned about the report on Tuesday, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman issued a customary denial. From Ben Blanchard and Joseph Menn at Reuters:
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Morally degenerate equivocators Posted: 19 Feb 2013 04:04 AM PST This post is basically a followup on the few posts recently addressing the perceptions of the GLF in the west. I will not add to the debate per se or even defend the other posters but rather talk about how people in the west are treating like discourse, namely those that does not fall in line with the dominate narrative in the west, i.e., that Mao was a mass murderer that had killed more people than Hitler and Stalin. I will take as my main target a recent post on another blog because I think its contents and its comments are so exemplary of the type of ignorance, bigotry and bias facing anyone that dares to question the west's perspective on anything. They are met with derision, marginalization, and every fallacy in the book instead of direct refutation and they are made by morally degenerate and intellectually dishonest individuals. One such individual is Sam Crane who has a blog about China. In a recent post (which was inspired by "noodling around the internet") in which he casually dismisses views that critically examines the thesis that the GLF wasn't as bad as commonly portrayed in the western media and that Mao wasn't the same kind of monster as Hitler, Stalin or the Japanese imperialists. He makes a long-winded post without actually refuting any specific individual or position (I wonder which positions and individuals he is referring to?). In fact he explicitly says he doesn't want to address them specifically and the reason he gives for this is that this will give those perspectives more attention than they deserve. That's convenient. Sounds like a classic cop-out of an intellectual coward to me. It's easy to dismiss phantoms but much harder to refute actual arguments.
The first comment in his post says that those who dare question the dominant view in the west should be "tried for crimes against humanity" showing once again, the tolerance for free expression and intellectual debate by proponents of western values. Crane's post is replete with strawpersons and equivocations (common theme for those familiar with his posts) that I will argue only a morally defective person can make. He blanket terms all critical discourse on the west's dominant narrative that 20-60 million people died in the GLF and that Mao was a mass murder as "denialist's" propaganda and suggests their motives as questionable. I quote his post:
See anyone questioning the veracity of these figures must be a Mao apologist and upstanding people like Crane are simply engaged in honest intellectual debate,…only the fact that Crane doesn't even attempt to refute any of their points address their reasons and evidence but merely launch into a tirade questioning their motives. Points made by people like the noted demographer Wim F. Wertheim that almost all the commonly accepted figures are likely over counts because they are based on the 1953 "census" which almost certainly exaggerated the birth rate and under estimated the death rate and thus counted in the final death toll those who had never been born and those who had died under other circumstances are marginalized as part of this propaganda. Even though Wertheim is someone actually qualified to make these statements about the death toll while Crane is not makes no difference to Crane. It is all "denialist" propaganda to him if it goes against his worldview. Anyone relying on data such as Wertheim's is guilty of "denialism" as well. The actual death toll is a legitimate area of scholarly debate. It is debated by real scholars who are qualified to do so and intellectually honest, two qualities Crane and the rest of the confederacy of goons on his site which seek to marginalize any criticisms of dominant western narrative on the GLF clearly do not possess. Those who engage in these debates often have only motives aiming at the truth (again, clearly unlike "noodlers" like Crane whose seems aims seem wholly ideological). It would be like if I simply labeled everyone that doubted the 1.5 million death toll of the Iraq war giving a smaller figure as Bush/Cheney apologists. Despite the fact that modern epidemiology is based on far better data, figures on the death toll in Iraq is still a matter of academic debate and though I believe that the 1.5 million figure is the best supported today, it would take an actual argument with evidence and reasons to refute those other figures (especially when they are supported with at least some evidence and not outrageously low), not dishonest and cowardly blanket generalizations with insinuations about the motives of those who give a figure not to one's liking. I may be wrong but almost everyone here thinks Mao is one of the worst people in modern Chinese history partly due to his actions (and lack of actions) during the GLF but that doesn't mean we should accept whatever the west feeds us about Mao and the GLF. It is insincere and cowardly to suspect anyone that doubts as motivated by nefarious intent without any evidence, just because they hold an opinion you may not like. The most despicable aspect of those who wish to bury any debate about Mao and the GLF is their insistent comparison of Mao with the likes of Stalin, Hitler and in Crane's case, the imperial Japanese.
These ridiculous comparisons are the target of much of the criticisms. Numbers aside, ignorance leading to death is one thing, murder is another. Even children as young as 4 (with the exception psychopathic children and children with autism spectrum disorder) can make the distinction that an intentionally malicious action and an unintentional action with negative consequences are morally not equivalent. Genocidal murderous regimes cannot be morally equivalent to incompetent ones, even ones as fiercely incompetent as Mao's. Take a look at India. Many of India's leaders know that their economic system is inferior to the Chinese and has been so for many decades and yet refuses any serious reform. This has led to untold suffering and premature deaths in India as the Nobel winning economist Amartya Sen has shown. Indian leaders are relatively incompetent due to their ignorance (much of it willful as in the case of Chinese leaders during the GLF) and that incompetence has led to the deaths of untold millions of children as the child mortality is much higher in India than in China and has been so for a very long time. The difference here is that in the case of India, the disastrous consequences has gone on to this day and the data supporting it is far more solid than those available during the 50s and 60s in China. India's leaders are worthy of much moral opprobrium much as China's incompetent and ignorant leaders for that economic disaster but only a morally defective individual would compare them to the murderous Hitler and Stalin regimes and to the imperial Japanese. Evoking Hitler, Stalin or the Imperial Japanese is just rhetoric to support one's ideology. Again, Sen is clearly qualified to make these statements but anyone who calls or insinuates him as a denialist because he supports aspects of Chinese policy (even pre reform policy, see here) is stupid and morally degenerate. I'm not saying that Crane calls Sen specifically a denialist but his blanket argument would cover those like Sen who defended the positive aspects of the Chinese economic system versus India's. Notice Crane chooses to make the comparison with the imperial Japanese. Why choose that example? Because of his ideology I suspect in that insinuating that the CCP is worse than the imperial Japanese and undermining much deserved sympathy and concern focusing on Japanese atrocities. He is suggesting that the Chinese ought to have as much or more anger and resentment towards their government as they do towards imperial Japan. His political motives thus must come into question but here, we actually have evidence from his own posts instead of cowardly addressing a bloodless stand-in phantom. Again, who would do such a thing but a seriously morally bankrupt individual? One can make a rather strong argument that those who make that link devalue the 20 million Chinese murder victims of the imperialist Japanese and are really just denialists for the Japanese regime. To them by making that link they are essentially saying, the Japanese didn't murder anyone, merely allowed people do starve and die due to their incompetence as opposed to the genocidal malice that was the actual cause. Why are there so many people so quick to attack anyone with with an opinion contrary to the accepted dogma? People tend to be biased naturally but I suspect there is a deeper bias here at work. I suspect that many whites are deeply ashamed that western civilization has done so much harm in the world. Mao represents to them an object for psychological projection (a topic of which I will post on later). Mao is a boogeyman whose image is but a convenient screen to project all of their collective shame for the crimes of their ancestors and their own governments to this day on to someone else, even if the results are but an effigy devoid of all facts. Mao offers a great opportunity, an outlet to show the world and themselves that white men aren't the only ones or the worst who commit the crimes of Hitler and Stalin. |
| China Gets Serious About Diagnosing Online Game Addiction. I Am Not Making This Up. Posted: 19 Feb 2013 02:16 AM PST Okay, so I've done my part over the years making fun of anyone who thinks Internet/online game addiction is a real disease that deserves diagnostic criteria, special facilities, trained health care professionals, etc. Regardless, there is a constituency here in China who takes this very seriously, probably the same folks who think that if a child sees naked breasts online, he will end up with permanent brain damage and sexual dysfunction. Heaven forfend that anyone in China will be exposed to sexuality before the age of 25! Anyway, I kind of thought that after the online game industry came into its own a few years ago, parents and government officials would learn to deal with it, let the kiddies play games, and live with the consequences.
Anonymous official — nice. You'd think if these social problems and juvenile crimes were rampant, Xinhua might have been able to get someone on the record, eh? On the other hand, if this is all bullshit, then the sourcing makes more sense. You gotta love these fantasy social problems. All one has to do is find one or two anecdotes (e.g., kid somewhere plays games for 72 hours straight and drops dead of dehydration) of kids behaving badly, then cleverly suggest that this sort of thing is endemic in modern Chinese society. If you're already predisposed to thinking that kids these days are worthless and lazy, you'll probably buy into the whole thing. And then of course, once conventional wisdom says that there is such a thing as online game addiction, and folks start profiting from the "cure," there's no stopping any of it. This includes the health care establishment, which then has to make sure that diagnosis and treatment are being done properly. No, I'm serious.
Starting to understand how this stuff gains momentum? I'd be laughing my ass off if I wasn't so worried about the poor kids who are going to be subjected to online game addiction "treatment" under these new protocols. We've already heard about a few infamous cases of kids being thrown into institutions — some of these children have been seriously damaged on their way to a "cure." Apparently a sufficient number of professionals have bought into the whole online game addiction mythology that they can now push the idea that treatment must be localized for Chinese kids. In the absence of high-quality diagnostic tools, the danger is . . . wait for it . . . misdiagnosis! The jokes write themselves. I just wish more people realized this isn't a serious medical condition. Can't parents just turn off their kids' laptops and tell 'em to finish their homework before getting back online? How difficult is that, anyway? © Stan for China Hearsay, 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Hollywood Uneasy as SEC Remains Silent Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:42 AM PST Nearly a year after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission began an investigation into the business practices of Hollywood film companies in China, The New York Times reports that the government has neither announced any action nor given any indication about the scope of its ongoing inquiry:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
| Huawei Denies Role in Singapore Project Posted: 19 Feb 2013 01:11 AM PST The Financial Times reported last week that the parents of American electronics engineer Shane Todd, who died mysteriously in Singapore just before he was due to leave his job and return to the U.S. last summer, believe he was murdered in connection with his involvement in a project between his Singaporean employer and Chinese telecom giant Huawei. While local police claimed Todd hanged himself, his parents retrieved a hard drive from his apartment that detailed the project and laid seeds of doubt about the official account of his death:
Huawei denied on Monday that it had worked with IME on the project in question, according to Reuters:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  |
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