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Communist China Turns 60 and Reveals Its Insecurities
William Pfaff
Nearly every comment being published on China's celebration of its brilliant economic successes has in one way or another raised the question of the future of a country that once was the most ideologically driven of major powers, but today has no governing ideology, or philosophy, or mobilizing goals. This above all threatens the governing Communist Party
China Rising in Latin America, but Won't Overtake United States
Andres Oppenheimer
The latest figures showing that China is emerging from the global crisis sooner than anticipated is triggering speculation that China will soon overtake the United States as Latin America's top business partner. Granted, speculation about China's impending leap to becoming Latin America's top economic partner spread like wildfire recently when Brazil announced that it will trade more with China than with the United States this year for the first time. It sounds very interesting, but don't bet on it.
Working Together, Brazil, Russia, China and India Increase Leverage
Ian Bremmer
In 2003, a report authored by Goldman Sachs economists popularized the term BRICs -- Brazil, Russia, India and China -- to describe a whole new category of emerging-market powerhouse. The report argued that with sound political leadership and relative international stability, the BRIC economies would together outpace the original G6 industrialized nations in dollar terms by 2040 -- a fundamental shift in the global balance of power. Since then, these four countries have assumed ever-greater importance in the international investment community's collective imagination.
Is the Economic Marriage Between China and U.S. on the Rocks?
Niall Ferguson Interview
China and America had effectively fused to become a single economy: Chimerica. The Chinese did the saving, the Americans the spending. The Chinese did the exporting, the Americans the importing. The Chinese did the lending, the Americans the borrowing. As the Chinese strategy was based on export-led growth, they had no desire to see their currency appreciate against the dollar. The unintended effect of this was to help finance the U.S. current account deficit at very low interest rates. Without that, it's hard to believe that U.S. financial markets would have bubbled the way they did from 2002 to 2007.
Bearing Witness 2.0: You Can't Spin 10,000 Tweets and Camera Phone Uploads
Arianna Huffington
China just delivered a stunning, real-world demonstration of the changes rocking -- and transforming -- modern journalism. When deadly riots broke out in the western province of Xinjiang earlier this month, the Chinese government sprang into message control mode. It choked off the Internet and mobile phone service, blocked Twitter and Fanfou (its Chinese equivalent), deleted updates and videos from social networking sites, and scrubbed search engines of links to coverage of the unrest. At the same time, it invited foreign journalists to take a tour of the area.
Addressing China's Fear Of North Korean Collapse
Joseph S. Nye Jr. Interview
It is by now a cliche to say that greater pressure from China can force North Korea to change. The problem is that China has two objectives: They want a de-nuclearized North Korea, but they also want a North Korea that doesn't collapse into chaos on their borders. The consequence of these cross-purposes is that the Chinese have been reluctant to use the leverage they have
America's New Energy Dependency: China's Metals
by Kent Garber
America's Clean-energy economy needs rare-earth metals to succeed and China has a near monopoly. In 2007, a standoff unfolded between China and several American companies. China was threatening to withhold supplies that keep refiners in business. A worried State Department intervened. Because the metals come almost exclusively from China, if the government had not acted, sources say, oil refineries could have been forced to shut down, possibly triggering shortages across the country.
Indian Ocean: Center Stage for 21st Century Struggles Between India & China
by Robert D. Kaplan
Competition between India and China suggests that the Indian Ocean is where global struggles will play out in the twenty-first century. The old borders of the Cold War map are crumbling fast, and Asia is becoming a more integrated unit, from the Middle East to the Pacific.
Tiananmen's Enduring Challenge
by Wang Dan
Twenty years have passed since our landmark demonstrations in Tiananmen Square for democracy and free speech and against corruption. And during this time, China has changed in important ways. Economic reforms have allowed millions of Chinese people to lift their families out of poverty, and many in China find their lives changed for the better. But the central causes the Tiananmen generation, students and citizens alike, took up remain unresolved: corruption, workers' rights, free speech and the need for government reform to address the needs of China's 1.3 billion people.
Deng Undone: China Halts Market Reform
Since the present Communist Party leadership took power, fresh market-oriented liberalization has been minor.
Such policies have been wound down and supplanted by renewed state intervention. In privatization, prices, even foreign trade and investment, the PRC was heading away from the market well before the financial crisis erupted.
Interview with India's Environment Minister
Jayshree Bajoria
India and China have long maintained their economic growth will suffer if they accept binding emission targets under an international agreement on climate change. Instead, they have called for mitigation commitments by the developed world and financial support from rich countries to help developing countries adapt to climate change.
Brazil, China & India Can Mitigate Global Crisis
Global Economic Viewpoint
Brazil, India and even China will not be able, by themselves, to correct the dysfunctions that produced the global crisis. But it is true that the economic power of these three countries can mitigate its negative consequences. ...
Why China & U.S. Not Ready to Upgrade Ties
Calling on the United States and China to do more together has an undeniable logic. Both Washington and Beijing are destined to fail if they attempt to confront the world's problems alone, and the current bilateral relationship is not getting the job done.
But elevating the bilateral relationship is not the solution. It will raise expectations for a level of partnership that cannot be met and exacerbate the very real differences that exist between Washington and Beijing.
Today, North Korea; Tomorrow, Iran - Nuclear Weapons
By Paul Greenberg
North Korea has been playing around with nuclear weapons again, this time setting off an even bigger underground explosion. To which the five veto-wielding powers at the United Nations have responded much as they did the first couple of times the North Korean regime defied the UN by setting off nukes: with oh-so-serious, oh-so-official statements.
Time to Test North Korea - Nuclear Weapons
Global Viewpoint
John Bolton, a leading neo-conservative official during the Bush administration, is a former U.S. undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. In this interview Bolton provides his opinion on North Korea's nuclear weapons testing and what the United States and the World needs to do in response
North Korea's Nuclear Weapon Challenge
Henry A. Kissinger
The Obama administration has so far dealt publicly with the North Korean challenge in an understated, almost leisurely, manner. The challenge goes far beyond the regional security issue. For the United States, it involves relations with an emerging superpower (China); relations with a re-emerging Russia; relations with key U.S. allies (Japan and South Korea); and a major escalation in the threat of proliferation to non-state parties.
This week in Shanghaiist
Who are the top 10 foreign athletes in China?
Hint: Tiger Woods is not one of them. Check out the whole list here.
Extra! Extra! Police and prostitutes, journalists and propaganda departments, and kids and condoms
Photo from JCRB
Shanghai Tattoo now selling Chinese indie rock CDs
We know, we know. We live in a digital era so it makes sense for us to just download everything. But sometimes, there's something nice about looking through cover art and popping in a CD. No, not a vinyl. We're not THAT music snobbish. In any case, there's now a place in Shanghai to get all your Chinese indie rock music in shiny jewel cases: Shanghai Tattoo, located at the Cool Docks in Huangpu. They're selling CDs from rock labels Maybe Mars, Pilot Music & Modern Sky (which means you can get bands like Convenience Store, PK14, Carsick Cas and Hedgehog) for from 20RMB to 70RMB. If you're ever in the neighborhood, pop over and give this oldfangled media a listen.
Shanghai Corporate Pavilion photo competition's October winners
Month three of the Shanghai Corporate Pavilion photo competition has just been completed and the newest winners have been announced. The People's Photo Archive Campaign runs through April 2010 and is aimed at showcasing the Expo's goal of "Better City. Better Life". This month's winners featured a bunch of new names, with the themes of ordinary people and everyday lives coming to the forefront:
Photos are Bath Time by Elke Martini and World Expo Construction (世博建筑) by Yilong Design
German shutterbug Elke Martini was in the top three this month with her unique family scene photo depicting a mother taking bath of her baby in a Shikumen house on Julu Lu near Xiangyang Lu. Elke said “Shanghai is a great place to take pictures. There is so much to see and even after spending five years in the city.”
Visual designer Yu Jialong is passionate about strolling the streets, especially at night when the streets are lit up with lights, to take his photos. His winning photo showed a group of construction workers taking sleep on an overpass bridge, and he has a moving story to tell: “Expo is what keeps me focused and never give up after I moved to the city to start my own business years ago. One day, after my night-time photography work, I ran across these migrant workers sleeping on the overpass. They told me they did so because they want to save so they can go back to build and make their hometowns as beautiful as Shanghai.”
Liu Dingxin, another top 10 winner this month, is a retired senior local citizen who devotes his time to taking and uploading photos for the People’s Archive campaign, spending on average three hours a day at his task. His winning work is a black and white close-up of a boy’s eyes, full of great hope and expectation. So far, Liu has uploaded nearly 700 photos to Shanghai Corporate Pavilion’s photo campaign website.
Congratulations to the winners - their photos give us a look at everyday life that we sometimes fail to notice as we get caught up in our busy schedules. Check out the previous winners for August and September here.
And If you're out and about with your camera, snap a photo and submit it to the campaign through their website and maybe we'll be talking about you next month.
Ministry of Health responds to internet addiction claims, buries head in sand
The Register reports:
China’s Ministry of Health recently denied the existence of so-called ‘internet addiction’ as a problem for Chinese youth. You heard correctly- the ‘land of a thousand internet-addiction camps’ is apparently conflicted over whether to electrocute the problem out of its children or to simply ignore it entirely.
China's health ministry has turned down the country's rhetoric on internet addiction, and has warned against "boot camp" style approaches for habitual web abusers.
The ministry has issued guidelines for "inappropriate use of internet" saying there was no precise definition of internet addiction, state news agency Xinhua reports.
The health ministry faces ever-increasing claims that internet addiction is fast becoming one of the largest problems facing Chinese youth. Though everyone but the ministry seems to agree that internet addiction is a legitimate problem, few can agree on the source of said dependency.
A recent Alibaba article states:
The tendency for young Chinese falling into such addictive patterns may be in part due to over-abundant parental pressures and expectations on their only child, according to Tao….Furthermore, busy parents and the absence of father figures in modern families could lead to insufficient and inefficient communication between children and parents. This emotional alienation from their parents is another reason for teens to turn to Internet abuse.
Despite the Ministry of Health’s denial of ‘internet addiction’ as a legitimate disorder, parents have been sending their children to participate in rehab-style programs that range from support groups to aversion therapy. Much debate has resulted as to what is the proper course of treatment for ‘internet addicts’ out of the wide spectrum of programs currently offered.
Although electroshock therapy was banned by the government in July, many parents see the brutal methods of aversion therapy as the only means through which their children can overcome internet addiction. This was no more evident than in August when a 16-year-old boy was beaten to death in one such camp for running too slowly during a routine exercise.
Rather than bothering to set an explicit definition for internet addiction, the Ministry of Health continued to remind internet users of their guidelines in avoiding “inappropriate use of internet”, which in essence forbids everything worth seeing online. If parents deemed their childrens internet use as inappropriate, then they could enroll their children in a program in which there is “no violence, no restriction on freedom, and no ‘destructive surgeries’”.
As far as Shanghaiist is concerned, the ministry’s approach to so-called internet addiction might just have some wisdom to it - what addiction!? I can log off whenever I want… just after finishing this one post….
Olympic condoms are faster, higher, stronger
Attention, all y’all who want to capture some of that Olympic vitality: 5,000 official condoms distributed to athletes during the Beijing Olympics are finding their way to the auction block November 29 for…ahem…hard core collectors. The bidding price for the condoms, in special packages printed with “faster, higher, stronger,” (the Olympic motto), will start at 1RMB. Officials believe that most of the condoms were not in fact used, but taken home by participants as souvenirs - let’s hope these are the ones up for bid.
Weekendist: Cuisine festivals, creativity workshops, charities and more!
FRIDAY La Societe@ Pavillon Costes Cuisine Festival@ Shanghai Exhibition Center Search for Creative City (寻城记) with NeochaEDGE and KIC Morning Tears Charity Party at Bell Cafe & Bar SUNDAY Body in Circumstance@ 1918 ArtSPACE ELIOT LIPP Workshop@ The Lab Charity Carnival at Millennium HongQiao Hotel Shanghai Baobei Foundation Charity Clothes Sale
We've got a pretty awesome weekend ahead of us. Even if you're not going to one of the many music parties planned for tonight (which you can check out in our midweek music preview), there's still a lot more going on. For instance...
Feeling classy? Pavillon by Costes is launching a new, sophisticated Friday music session this weekend. The set includes electro-disco DJ Chris Lee, with support from Pavillion's own DJ Radek. Complementary cocktail at 10pm! Dress nicely, boys and girls.
House 17, Lane 181, Taicang Lu, Xintiandi. 太仓路181弄17号. No cover, for table reservations and guest list spots: rsvp@pavilloncostes.com or call +86 (21) 5306 9988.
SATURDAY
Get your grub on at this huge festival dedicated to FOOD (and drink). On November 7 and 8, the World Events Agency, a trade show company based in China for 5 years, is holding the Cuisine Festival. The show features an impressive list of Shanghai’s top restaurants and suppliers running from Bastiaan Bakery and Cantina Agave, through Exit Bar and Grand Hyatt, down to Sherpa’s and South Beauty.
1000 Yan'an Zhong Lu, Jing An near Tongren Lu. 延安中路1000号, 近铜仁路. Get tickets at http://www.thecuisinefestival.com. 8am -9pm.
NeochaEDGE is collaborating with Knowledge & Innovation Community (KIC) to organize 4 weekends of Chinese creativity and fun as part of the Search for Creative City (寻城记) event series. 16 of Shanghai’s most interesting creative groups will exhibit, perform, host games, and sell products, 7 of Shanghai’s most prolific graffiti artists will perform daily live-art, and there will also be a 50-stall flea market and daily musical performances by Chinese bands. And it all ends this Saturday.
KIC Plaza (234 Songhu Rd., Yangpu District, near Wu Jiao Chang / Fudan University) 凇沪路234号，创智天地广场 (近五角场), starts 2pm
You probably have found yourself in Taikang lu on lazy Saturday afternoons anyway, so you might as well go this weekend and actually contribute to a charity too. At Bell Bar, any drink profits will directly be going to the charity Morning Tears, which works with orphans, abused, neglected and street children and children whose parents are in prison.
Bell Cafe & Bar, No. 11 Lane 248 Taikang Lu, near Sinan Lu 泰康路248弄11号 近近思南路, Noon-5pm.
A joint exhibition with German artist Judith Sturm and Hangzhou-born artist Lu Yi, featuring a common subject: paintings of people in summer outfits. Sturm focuses on close-ups of the female bodies, while Lu captures summer beach scenes.
1/F, 6 Xiangshan Lu, by Sinan Lu. 香山路6号楼1层，近思南路.
1918 ArtSPACE Warehouse, 78 Changping Lu, by Xi Suzhou Lu. 昌平路78号, 近西苏州路.
On the Sunday following the ELIOT LIPP show at The Shelter, PAUSE and FREE the WAX will hold a free one-hour workshop with Lipp at The Lab. Get technical with synths and drum machines.
5F, 343 Jiaozhou Lu. Free BBQ! Starts 5pm.
This annual charity carnival aims to raise money for children suffering from congenital heart disease (we talked to the organizers last week!). Magic and kung fu shows dominate the stage while vendors display a range of souvenirs and gifts. International food, a live auction, raffle draw, kids' corner and arts and crafts table round out the festivities.
Millennium Hongqiao, 2588 Yan An Xi Road上海市延安西路2588号, Free for children, RMB200 for two adults 10:30am-4:30pm.
For more feel good happenings, head over to Gourmet Cafe to help raise money for the Baobei Foundation, a charity dedicated to providing medical care and foster homes for orphans bornw ith critical neurological and gasto-intestinal disorders. Lots of goodies, designer labels and latest fashion items will be on sale.
Gourmet Cafe, 1F Shanghai Center, 1376 Nanjing Xi Lu. 南京西路1376号 上海商城1楼12pm to 5pm.
Interview: Eliot Lipp talks electro
With everything that's going on tonight, FREE the WAX has got one more gig vying for your attention featuring American electro-cinematic producer maestro Eliot Lipp who is best known for his seamless weaving of 80s electro, 70s jazz-fusion and Bay Area hip hop. We've got here a snippet of an interview by FREE the WAX with Eliot Lipp to amp up your interest. And if you really really can't make it tonight, Eliot Lipp will be hosting a free (yes you heard me right, FREE) workshop and barbeque on Sunday. What are you waiting for? Where did you grow up? In a typical American town northwest of Seattle, in Tacoma, Washington. It is very rainy, a working class town, not much going on. I was 14/15 and started going to shows, did the whole punk rock thing… It's mainly the energy, the chaos in NY. There's always a lot going on, people everywhere. It's always motivating for me. I work better when I’m oversaturated with information. Creativity flows more spontaneously. It is definitely a part of my track-making process. You lived in Tacoma, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco… So do you think NY is more inspirational? I get different things from different cities. Moving means I get to listen to music in a different way. I never listened to Chicago house until I moved to Chicago. There people were teaching me why Chicago house is awesome. I used to listen to it before and just say "Ah, this is whack, turn it off". It's like hearing Chop and Screwed in the south instead of in France, you know. It makes total sense. In LA I was around a lot of other producers, mesmerized. Your roommates are making music, people are coming and going. I felt a sense of community in the arts scene which was stronger in LA than anywhere else. It was friendly competition, people feeding off from each other. That's when I did Tacoma Mockingbird for Hefty Records. Yeah, I had done my first album which was stylistically all over the place and all sample-based. Tacoma was when I wanted to zoom in and see what I wanted to bring to the table as a producer. Give myself an identity and bring out all of those melodies that I had in my head. For Tacoma I was writing all the chord progressions, bass lines and the beats. It was a lot more "me". Now I'm trying to bridge the gap. Find a way of incorporating sampling with synthesizers and everything else I do. It's hard. I think '’ve been successful at times and failed in others. On my last album, 'Peace Love Weed 3D', I mixed all the different styles I've been listening to: disco, electro and dance music from the 80s, which makes the sound more uptempo. I've just been true to what I felt like making. It's an experimental process, I’ll record a sketch of a song then resample it, chop it, de-tune it… That's how I end up with some songs which have an electro or techno feel sometimes. I wanna be able to push boundaries while at the same time I am drawn to melodies which sound pop-ey. I always want my style to be more intricate and more simple, more hi-fi and lo-fi looking for something that I can't necessarily have. I don't know what to think. Everyone that I talked to said they had a great time here and that the crowd was really receptive too. It seems like a place that doesn't have a (comparatively) thriving scene. At least it's definitely not oversaturated. I’m gonna play a mixture of songs from all of my records and some new stuff too. The only thing is that I'm not gonna have all my keyboards with me. But I always change my set in a way where I can improvise and consider what the crowd is responding to.
Where: The Shelter, No. 5 Yongfu Lu, near Fuxing Xi Lu 永福路5号，近复兴西路 for the show, The Lab, 5F No. 343 Jiaozhou Lu, near Xinzha Lu 胶州路343号5楼，近新闸路 for the workshop/bbq
Starts: Friday, November 6, 9PM for show; Sunday, November 8, 5-6PM for workshop
Cover: 50 RMB for show, FREE for workshop
When did you start producing music?
At the same time I was doing the punk rock thing I had a four-track and a drum machine and started making beats with my friends. Making beats, doing graffiti, writing raps, break dancing, DJing, playing in bands, always being creative... It was just a part of high school, just what you did as a teenager to kill time, find shit to do, you know. It was the cultural environment.
And now you are living in New York. How does this environment influence what you do?
What did you produce in LA at the time?
That album has a special meaning for you…
So no more sampling?
And how would you describe your style now?
And to finish this up… what is your impression of China so far?
What's your set gonna be like?
Around Shanghai: Malones, martinis and Moreno!
Photo by sheep sheep
The saga of erotic audio fiction series "Night Talk"
Did you know there used to be an erotic audio book website based out of Shanghai that was immensely popular? We didn’t until we heard about its court case - where the site was shut down and the main female voice actress was sentenced to two years in prison - and we feel all the worse for it. The service, “Night Talk,” attracted 2 million hits, recorded 260,000 downloads and had sales of around 40,000RMB on its 953 episodes of erotic fiction before it was finally brought down. But the shutting up of “Night Talk” has just stirred the fervor for the audio books, with Chinese netizens aplenty desperately searching for remaining traces of its digital files.
Photo of the Day: Opinions on disability pensions
More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).
Photo by LINK">2_dogs
Extra! Extra! Bird's Nest bills, home improvement extortion letters, and the Chongqing corruption trials
Photo by Jakob Montrasio
Speaking of Shanghai Disneyland
Disney, according to Xinhua: "China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world, and this approval marks a very significant milestone for the Walt Disney Company in mainland China," said Robert A. Iger, president and CEO of The Walt Disney Co. Other Shanghai amusement park owners, according to Shanghai Daily: 
Woah Mickey, now that Shanghai Disneyland finally seems to have gotten all its papers in order, it seems like everyone can’t stop gabbering on about it (for instance, has anyone else noticed that Shanghai Daily has kind of turned into Shanghai Disneyland Daily today). Except, we suppose, us. Hey, give us a break, we’ve been covering this roller coaster ride of a deal for so long that it being greenlighted has actually left us a little flabbergasted. And so, since we’re at a loss for words, we’ll let other people talk about what they think about the soon-to-be erected (well, at least by 2014) Sleeping Beauty castle in Pudong."We are born here and grew up here, and we know what the Chinese people want," said Ren Kelei, president of Happy Valley, the newest and biggest of Shanghai's theme park...
The Jinjiang Amusement Park, which has been running roller coasters and Ferris wheels for about 25 years and is 10 times smaller than Happy Valley, also said it is not concerned about the heightened competition.
"There should be a place just for parents to take their children to have a relaxing day out," said Ge Yunkui, deputy general manager of the park.
Hong Kong Disneyland, according to China Daily:
"Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Managing Director Andrew Kam said the announcement marked "another significant step for Disney" in China, an important and dynamic market."We at Hong Kong Disneyland are focused on getting our exciting project underway as soon as possible," he said, referring to an expansion project on Hong Kong Disneyland.
Margaret Fong, commissioner for tourism, said she was confident that the Hong Kong Disneyland will remain attractive and competitive, adding that the Hong Kong park attracts visitors from not only mainland but also southeast Asia and other places."
Chinese netizens according to the Wall Street Journal: "Walt Disney won’t make Shanghai the happiest place in the world... That’s the early reaction from a surprising number of netizens, or Chinese Internet users, to confirmation early Wednesday that plans for Shanghai Disneyland have the green light to proceed. Of the posts streaming into tianya.cn, a major portal, early Wednesday, the negative views were solidly outweighing positive views. A survey on eastday.com suggests a lack of enthusiasm too."
Shanghai residents according to China Daily: "I'm thrilled to hear the news," said Lin Fuli, a 23-year-old student from Shanghai Institute of Foreign Trade. "I've been looking forward to this ever since my first visit to the Hong Kong park two years ago."
Random fans at the Anaheim Disneyland in California, according to The Examiner:
Half way around the world, in Anaheim California, at the original Disneyland Resort, guests on Tuesday night were delighted to hear about the news of a new park being added to the Disney Resorts already in operation.'Everyone should be excited about this.' said Christina Neilson. 'There were rumors at D23 this was the next Disney Resort and well, I am glad to see this happen. I've been to Disney Tokyo and I would go to Shanghai.' Neilson isn't alone in wanting to see other Disney parks, guests are buzzing about the possibilities of a new Disney Park hankering to get the opportunity to visit even if it is a few years off.
Soon-to-be displaced villagers according to China Daily:
"Min Guoyao, a resident at Zhaohang village of Chuansha, has lived with his family in a two-floor home for more than 50 years. He now expects his house will be demolished to make way for the project."Our family has been living here for many generations. I really have no idea how we'll be resettled in another place," Min said."
Other little tidbits:
- Shanghai will be owning a 57% stake in the new Disney park, leaving Disney with just 43%. Costs for relocating people and acquiring the land will cost about 24 million yuan. Other details were not given to the public.
- The China Beat draws interesting connections between Shanghai Disneyland and the World Expo. For instance, did you know that Walt Disney's father worked as a carpenter during the Chicago World Fair? Coincidence or FATE?!
- Below is a map we found that COULD be what the phases of the new Disneyland may look like from a now defunct thread on a Disney forum.Eeeenteresting.
We're kind of a big deal
Or so it would seem from CNNGo’s most recent Shanghai Hot List of 20 people you should watch. Both former and current editors, Kenneth Tan and Elaine Chow, made it to the rankings, which also include such Shanghai notables as the founder of Dianping.com and Yao Ming. How or why they've been listed alongside the founder of Dianping.com and Yao Ming we shall never know - however, since they're not ones to check the mouth of a gift fame horse (or so the saying goes)... Thanks CNNGo! If you see them around town, feel free to ask for an autograph… but please, no pictures.
Ding Hui: Still Chinese, still black, still playing volleyball
Here's the passage in question, from The Guardian's Stephen Vines:
The past couple of days, traffic to China Sports Today from people searching for "Ding Hui" has seen a little uptick. Could it be a coincidence that a recent story in The Guardian said that Ding Hui, the Chinese national volleyball team's first black player, was booted from the national team last year, implying that it was because Ding Hui is black? But If you came to find out about the volleyball player who was kicked off the Chinese national team for being black, you won't find what you're looking for because it didn't happen.
A stark reminder of official racism came last year when Ding Hui, of mixed Chinese and African parentage, was barred from representing his country in the national volleyball team."
In fact, Ding Hui was selected for the training group for the Chinese national team in the spring of this year. Coach Zhou Jianan had high praise for his play, saying he was one of China's top five players. But Ding's skin color and mixed parentage (his mother is Chinese, father is South African) attracted more media interest. The 20-year-old Ding Hui, the first black player to get a spot on any Chinese national team, competed for Zhejiang in the national games.
Ding Hui is part of a small but growing minority in China—people with one Chinese parent and one black parent (often African) who grow up side by side with children whose appearance is more consistent with what is generally considered Chinese. Another such young person is Lou Jing, who recently made waves when she made it to the late stages of a Chinese reality show competition called "Go! Oriental Angels." (We've chronicled her travails extensively)
It seems likely his career with the Chinese national team will go forward and include major international competition. As it does, Ding Hui will certainly be in a different sort of spotlight than his teammates.
Ding Hui's presence on the national team has the potential to improve or worsen China's issues with racism—and it will probably do a little bit of both. On the one hand, it reinforces stereotypes of African blood endowing people with exceptional athletic gifts—and, conversely, Asian blood being a distinct disadvantage in that area. On the other hand, his presence in the public eye will make more people aware that people like him do exist, do speak native Chinese (media repeatedly remark that both Ding and Lou speak Chinese, and only Chinese), and absolutely expect and deserve an active role in Chinese society—including representing their country in athletic competition.
History has shown the sports world to be a place where a society can make progress on some of its problems surrounding race. At its best, sport is an equalizer, where people who would otherwise keep their distance come closer, at least for a few hours at a time. And the end goal—a world championship, a gold medal—becomes so important that coaches, teammates, and team administrators are willing to set aside some of their insecurities to move toward it.
If Ding Hui makes the lineup for the London Olympics in 2012, he will be in a global spotlight, and millions of people around the world will ask the same questions a lot of Chinese are asking now: "Black AND Chinese? Is that even possible?" This should result in a batch of stories in international media about what it means to be black and Chinese, on the situation of Africans living in China, about evolving Chinese perspectives on race. Some of these stories will be nuanced and thoroughly reported, and some will fail miserably as they try to impose American (or British, or French, etc.) history and culture on the situation in China. Hopefully most of them will at least stick to the facts.
For more Chinese sports news, check out China Sports Today.
...and the winners of the Toxic Avengers tickets are:
Anke Stockburger and Han Fei, who were the first people who emailed us about free tickets. Thanks! Your names will be on the guest list - just show up and enjoy the show! As for the rest of you who emailed in, we highly recommend you come anyway. The Toxic Avenger (myspace here) is an awesome act to catch. He'll be playing at Not Me (21 Dongping Lu) on Friday night, starting at 10pm. Check out this and other shows you can see around Shanghai this weekend in our midweek music preview.
Shanghai mayor warns against abusing VIP driving privileges
Hey VIPs! Just because you’re VIPs doesn’t mean you get to drive all willy nilly on the road, despite there actually being regulations that allow you to do so. Shanghai mayor Han Zheng has warned government officials and emergency vehicles to stop abusing the privilege, scolding that “vehicles for the government departments should set a good example.” In three weeks in October, there were 57 cases of privileged vehicles breaking traffic regulations. Stop it, Han Zheng has requested, adding that police will be checking for these kind of violations more stringently.
Obama's half-brother writes semi-fiction book about abusive dad
According to the WSJ:
U.S. President Barack Obama’s China-residing half-brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo, has now launched his first novel, “Nairobi to Shenzhen.” in Guangdong province. The book is “semi-autobiographial” and about his life rather than that of his slightly more famous kin.
Ndesandjo’s final version, a work of fiction, reflects his own experiences of growing up in Kenya, living in the U.S., and eventually settling in China. It also makes reference to the author’s difficult relationship with his late father, Barack Obama Sr., who Ndesandjo describes as emotionally and physically abusive.
“My mother used to say of my father, he’s a brilliant man but a social failure,” Ndesandjo told reporters. “I remember times in my house when I would hear screams and I would hear my mother’s pain.”
Still, he attributes the American prez to helping him come to terms with his past and write a “book to raise awareness of domestic violence and help improve the lives of disadvantaged children everywhere.” Ndesandjo, whose already proven himself to be a charitable sort in the past, will be donating 15% of the proceeds from the novel to organizations that work with children.
Considering the problems China has with domestic abuse, we're hoping some people around the neighborhood are inspired to pick up this book as well.
Threesday: Healthy eating for the sick souls in Shanghai
Blame it on the cold weather snap, but Shanghaiist has been sick as a dog. When we’re hacking up a lung, we crave clean, msg and oil-free food…no easy task in Shanghai. Our three favorite restaurants for nurturing, chicken soup-like food are Anna Maya in the French Concession, Qimin Organic Hot Pot in the Jing’An area, and Mekong River in Xujiahui. 1) Anna Maya 2) Qimin Organic Hot Pot 3) Mekong River Stay well this winter and let us know what your favorite healthy eateries are in our fair city. Photo of Anna Maya.
In our ongoing Threesday feature, Shanghaiist takes the time to count out three of well... whatever catches their fancy that week. This week: Places to get that warm bowl of healthy something now that flu season is upon us.
A charming vegan, macrobiotic Japanese restaurant/café that okay, has no chicken soup, but does make the city’s heartiest miso. Anna Maya has yummy Japanese staples like rice balls/gen mai and curry with brown rice as well as typical western vegetarian fare including veggie or tofu burgers. The desserts are a bit hit or miss - we avoid the tofu lemon cheesecake, but can’t get enough of the decadent Irish crème chocolate pie. Anna Maya is also a great place to just kick-back with a glass of fresh juice or herbal tea and escape the bustle of the city. Meals around 60RMB, delivery available to limited areas.
3 Taojiang Lu, near Hengshan Lu, 桃江路3号，, 近东平路, 6433 4602
The recently renovated organic restaurant looks similar to its previous incarnation and thankfully contains exactly the same fantastic food. Each person is given an individual half-pot of bubbling soup base (organic chicken soup available) and a heaping helping of vegetables and meat. Lunch is the best time to visit as they have business sets for 68-88 RMB. However, Qimin’s dinner sets for around 150RMB include more food and a shot of their grape vinegar slushy (don’t knock it until you try it). For hairy crab season, they have a special soup base that includes 3 or 4 of Shanghai’s hairiest for 480RMB for two people.
407 Shaanxi Bei Lu, near Beijing Xi Lu, 陕西北路407号 近北京西路, 6258-8777
Shanghaiist hates eating in malls. However, we do make one exception for Mekong River’s sweet and sour seafood soup. The rich broth, sweet shrimp and clams, and sour vegetables make this pure comfort food for sickies. If you ask nicely, they’ll even throw in some tasty noodles direct from Vietnam. The soup, in combination with the best salmon spring rolls in the city (we aren’t sure what marinade they use, but it’s soooo right), makes us return to the hell known as the 'Xujiahui Triangle'. Affordable prices around 30-50RMB also make it easy on the wallet.
5/F Metro City, 1111 Zhaojiabang Lu,
near Caoxi Bei Lu, 肇家浜路1111号徐家汇美罗城5楼
近漕溪北路, 6426-8256
No Sharks for Yao Ming
Oh no, it looks like Yao Ming hasn’t bought the Shanghai Sharks after all. Instead, all they’ve signed on to be is an “entrusted investor” for the next five years. Despite agreeing in July to transfer stakes in the Sharks to Yao, it seems that those stakes will now be sold on the open market. But those who worry that this just means even more disappointments for Sharks fans needn’t: Yao has said that even though he’s not the owner, he’ll be doing everything he can to improve the team’s performance.
Photo Essay: Wedded to the Sea
Photos by Jeremy Breningstall. On a weekend afternoon in fall, dozens if not hundreds of engaged couples descend upon Qingdao's beaches, with photographers, lighting handlers and prop assistants in tow, to have formal wedding portraits taken against the beautiful backdrop of the Yellow Sea. Here you can glimpse a few photos of the process (also artfully captured in Sexy Beijing's "Weddings Gone Wild" episode and alluded to the last time we went to Qingdao).
China's Top 25 in Fashion
Our knowledge of fashion extends to figuring out when H&M is having a sale so we've left it up to That's Magazine to shower us with the top 25 you should keep an eye on in the China fashion sphere. While we raised a finely groomed eyebrow at some of their picks (especially the supermodels - really? Unless they've become the Kate Moss/Agyness Deyn's of the Middle Kingdom, we don't see how they're influencing anything), we did also get a good run down of important people, it seems, to know if you can actually pick out a Jimmy Choo from a Manolo Blahnik.
Photo of the Day: Nothing but blue skies do I see
More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).
Photo by dbmboise
Midweek Music Preview: Nov 4 ~ Nov 8
UPDATE: Okay, we already have winners for the Toxic Avengers tickets. You guys can stop emailing us your names now. But first! An announcement to make. One of the acts we're most excited about to catch this weekend - The Toxic Avenger - has generously offered us two free tickets to give to Shanghaiist readers. That means YOU GUYS. Hopefully these tickets are going out to fans, but in case you didn't know, Simon Delacroix was considered "one of the 5 most influential electronic artists of the year" by Rolling Stones, which puts him up in the ranks with megastars like Justice and LCD Soundsystem. How can you get one? Just send an email to info (at) shanghaiist (dot) com with your full name and Toxic Avenger in the subject line. The first two emails we get will be put on the guest list at the party on Friday. And now back to the midweek music preview. WEDNESDAY Brown Nylon Suit Collective will be spinning some British sounds (from the past and future... and we suppose, not the present?) at Not Me. We last caught them a long time ago at C's and they were fun then. Consider this a step up. FREE, 10PM, NOT ME 21 Dongping Lu near Hengshan Lu, 东平路21号, 近衡山路 FRIDAY Wujiaochang used to be a home to students, artists and musicians - but now it's just another skyscrapered wasteland in Shanghai. Still, it's old residents have gotten nostalgic and are getting together to remember the place they once played. You can see: singer and author Liu Jian, photographer and director Zhang Xue Dan, singer Liu Si Jia, poet Shi Xing Hai, and others having a grand old time. Considered one of the best indie rock electro acts China has to offer, Beijing's Pet Conspiracy will be bringing their provocative stage show to Mao Livehouse (more info here. Support from Boys Climbing Ropes and Duck Fight Goose. Beijing-based acoustic label MicroMu presents Fink - a guy who's managed to mix folk, blues and dub altogether to create a "brand of acoustic music [that's] distinctly modern while remaining deeply intimate." We're guessing it has to be heard to be believed. The Toxic Avenger, aka Simon Delacroix, takes cues from everything from hardcore punk to 60s pop to create epic sonic soundscapes. He's done remixes for artists such as Ladytron, Late of the Pier, and Heartsrevolution; he's performed with MSTRKRFT, Black Lips, Crystal Castles and Public Enemy; and now he'll be at Not Me with support from: R3, The Dynamic, Kidplastic, Mr Clumsy Cost. SATURDAY Ready for a night of Chinese rock? Little Natural, MOMO, Forget and Forgive, and Fusion are hitting up MAO Livehouse to prove that "We Can All Be Captains." For more avante-garde tastes, try out six experimental musicians at CANART. Besides acoustic improvationalist Maimai and noise band Torturing Nurse, there will be four other acts that are incredibly difficult to describe. According to Pitchfork, "“[Hanggai] distills everything powerful about Mongolian folk music and makes something new from the ingredients…transcendently powerful music that anyone from anywhere can understand." Listen to these heroic Mongolian vigilantes here and then check them out at the Zhijiang Dream Factory. SUNDAY Originally conceived as a one-time exhibition of student rock talent, We Come From University now hosts its sixth installment in this concert series, underlining college-aged Chinese bands taking their music off-campus. Shanghaiist lists all the live music performances you might want to check out from Wednesday to Sunday this week. For fun things that aren't live music, take a peek at our Pencil This In (out every Monday!)
¥30 (¥10 for students), 8PM, 021 Live House, Yangpu District, JunGong Lu 1436 Wuwei Creative Space 上海 杨浦区 军工路1436号五维创意空
¥60, 9PM, MAO Livehouse, 570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu. 淮海西路570号 近红桥路
¥60 (¥50 in advance), 9PM, Yuyintang 1731 Yanan Xi Lu, near Kaixuan Lu 延安西路1731号(凯旋路)
¥60, 10PM, NOT ME 21 Dongping Lu near Hengshan Lu, 东平路21号, 近衡山路
¥40 (¥30 w/student id), 8PM, MAO Livehouse, 570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu. 淮海西路570号 近红桥路
¥30, 7PM, CANART Institute of Contemporary Arts, 1/F, Bldg 4, 727 Dingxi Lu near Fahuazhen lu, 定西路727号4号楼1楼 近法华镇路
¥50, 9PM, Zhijiang Dream Factory 4F, Building B, 28 Yuyao Lu near Xinzha Lu (inside New Factories) 余姚路28号，同乐坊内
¥20, 8PM, Live Sound Garage, 696 Weihai Lu, near Shanxi Nan Lu 威海路696号
Golf masters ... or Chinese Chess masters?
Anyway, this year, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are battling it out on the Chinese chess board (at The Bund!) before they duel on the green. Speaking of which, if you want to see them duel on the green, here's all the ticketing info. Standard package passes range from 500RMB to 2000RMB.
The WGC-HSBC Champions tournament is starting up tomorrow, and today, the big players were on the China publicity warpath by doing their mandatory "Look at us! We're taking part in Chinese culture!" bit. The part of Shanghaiist that's actually interested in this sport says this happens every time pro-golfers come into town: three years ago there was a ping pong match.
Wednesday WTF: What is it with kids and smoking?
We thought we'd seen the last of babies taking drags off ciggs with the first video, but nope. This video was uploaded by someone who said he filmed it on National Day. In Guizhou, a couple of migrant workers bragged about how their baby (the fourth son in the family) could smoke half a pack a day. "Check it out, look kid, here have a smoke." Like the person who posted this, we've been rendered speechless too.
Google Pollution Maps of China
A blogger out of Fujian has compiled an open-source google map that places major pollution sites around china. While similar sources have existed in the past, this is the first one that allows other users to contribute sites with pollution problems. The map, which was created by Guo Baofeng, has attracted a lot of interest on Chinese BBS' and Forums: check it out while you still can, because you never know when it could suddenly disappear.
Syphilis boom fueled by richer migrant workers
The Chinese economy boom has helped increase numbers of both great and not-so-great things. On one hand, you've got rising literacy rates, development and internet penetration. On the other hand, you also get more pollution, city overcrowding and... syphilis. According to the World Health Organization, cases of the STD are now growing by 30% a year, and it's all because of migrant workers who now make enough money to hire more prostitutes. All the more reason to take up Zhang Feng's proposal and give them sex toys, eh?
Counterfeit money crackdown uncovers over 1 Billion RMB
Counterfeit money is by and large not made in Shanghai, but finds its way here en mass as a focal point for circulation and distribution through the country. The money is mostly passed on in smaller amounts that don't check for counterfeit money: last year, the bus authority received nearly 7 million yuan in counterfeit bills Our favorite criminal is Peng Bao, who got caught hiding over 20 million RMB amongst instant pork noodles. And while larger counterfeit bills are decreasing in number, it looks like crooks are simply switching their preference in fakes to smaller denomination bills, which are easier to pass off than hundred yuan notes. Photo by Hangzhou wang
Police have succeeded in breaking records for confiscating more counterfeit money than ever before. Since the crackdown was announced in January, over 280 people have been arrested, 190 cases involving counterfeit money have been cracked, and over 1 billion yuan has been confiscated.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew pisses off Chinese netizens
While his son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has been busy meeting up with former US President George Bush, Singapore's ever so feisty and sprightly 86 year old Minister Mentor1 Lee Kuan Yew has gone halfway around the globe to meet US President Barack Obama in Washington ahead of his debut Asian tour that will include China, Japan, South Korea and Singapore. Lee's tour also saw him meeting two key Cabinet members of the Obama administration - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. In his various meetings rubbing shoulders with very important minds, the sage-like Lee who has often been counted on to interpret Asia to the west did not hesitate to tell the Americans what he saw in his crystal ball. "The 21st century will be a contest for supremacy in the Pacific because that's where the growth will be," said Lee. "If you do not hold your ground in the Pacific you cannot be a world leader." Prior to his meetings with Obama and Clinton, Lee received a lifetime achievement award from the US-ASEAN Business Council in a high profile event witnessed by the likes of Henry Kissinger. In his keynote address delivered at the gala dinner last Thursday in Washington, Lee urged the US to remain engaged in Asia:The size of China makes it impossible for the rest of Asia, including Japan and India, to match it in weight and capacity in about 20 to 30 years. So we need America to strike a balance.
Those comments had the effect of rubbing up Chinese netizens the wrong way. Within a few hours of the Global Times 《环球时报》report hitting the interwebs, Lee's comments attracted the fury of hundreds of Chinese netizens, but wait a minute, there's more.
In building any new East Asian architecture, Lee said the United States must be "an important part" of it, adding that "it would be a serious mistake for the region to define East Asia in closed or, worse, in racial terms."
Here is a snippet from a Global Times blogpost summarising the reactions of Chinese netizens (with translation from the Malaysian Insider):
Many of those who responded were upset and said that Lee had treated the Chinese as outsiders although they had treated Singaporeans as “among their own”.“Lee Kuan Yew spoke for the feeling of those in the West who fear China’s rise would harm their vested interests,” said one netizen.
Another described Lee as “a political animal”, saying that while he “relies on China to develop his country’s economy, he is ushering wolves here to deal with China”.
A third posting said: “Just because he has achieved some success in Singapore, he dares to play the guiding light that shows US the way. If he has the stuff, he should go to Africa and offer tips on how to shake off poverty and achieve wealth.”
Another posting brushed off his comments as insignificant as Singapore was a small country.
“Lee Kuan Yew had made such comments likely because Singapore is a small country that needs an interplay of balances in the international arena,” said the netizen.
“However, what significance do his words carry when the reality is that for a voice to be heard and the views realised, one needs to be truly powerful,” the netizen asked.
A few highly vitriolic essays written by netizens have been given prominent positions in the blog sections of mainstream media portals. Here are just two of them:
李光耀的言论暴露新加坡是美国围堵中国的桥头堡
"Lee Kuan Yew's comments reveal that Singapore is but a pawn of the US in countering China"
无耻梦想：李光耀想让新加坡统治整个东盟当以色列！
"Shameless dreams: Lee Kuan Yew wants Singapore to rule ASEAN like an Israel!"
The response by the Chinese mainstream media has been somewhat more measured. Most reports underscored the online fury among netizens, and then weighed in on political scientists to reflect sentiment on the ground. Here are a few headlines:
李光耀谈话显示东盟信任美国胜过中国 [China News Agency]
"Lee Kuan Yew's comments show that ASEAN trusts the US more than it trusts China"
石齐平：李光耀为何建言美国制衡中国 [Phoenix TV]
"Shi Qiping (political commentator): Why Lee Kuan Yew wants the US to counterbalance China"
李明波：李光耀说啥不必太在意 [Guangzhou Daily]
"Li Mingbo (Guangzhou Daily columnist): No need to pay any heed to what Lee Kuan Yew says"
李光耀亲美言论激怒中国网民 新加坡多家媒体辩解 [Guangzhou Daily]
"Lee Kuan Yew's latest comments anger Chinese netizens, Singapore media offer an explanation"
Footnotes:
1 Prior to this appointment, Lee Kuan Yew held the title of Senior Minister when he passed over the prime ministership to Goh Chok Tong. In 2004, when Lee Kuan Yew's son Lee Hsien Loong became the nation's third prime minister, Goh Chok Tong became the Senior Minister and the new title of Minister Mentor was created for Lee Senior. Together, the three are often referred to as the "Father, Son and Holy Goh" of Singaporean politics.
Around Shanghai: Yabi, sailors and robots galore!
Shanghai Disneyland: Ministry sanctions and land acquisions
To corroborate the story, it looks like Disney is in the process of buying 4.12 square kilometers for the the park, or in Disney terms, almost four times the size of Hong Kong's Disneyland! Reports state that demolition is currently going on at the site in Chuansha District, and though most of the land is uninhabited, it looks like they have started to demolish houses in the village. It comes as no surprise that Disney has been remarkably hush-hush about the operation, as the plan to open a Disneyland in Shanghai has been delayed and set back so many times already. Then again, the signs all seem to point to a Disneyland in Pudong in the near future. UPDATE: The New York Times has an article quoting Disney exectives with details on the deal. Read it here.
After years of back and forth, it looks like Shanghai Disneyland has been given the go-ahead. According to news sources, the Shanghai Municipal Government Informatin offices announced the deal's approval early this morning. While details still have to be worked out between the mouse and the ministries, it seems like a pretty set deal.
Photo of the Day: Nearing completion
More photos on the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site (and here).
Photo by Jakob Montrasio
Extra! Extra! Giant Maos, Taiwanese gay parades, and more internet controls?
China finds yet another way to frustrate WoW players
Reuters reports: 
According to a statement released by Netease earlier today, the General Administration of Press and Publication has suspended government approval for their operating World of Warcraft. As if WoW players didn't have enough problems earlier this year, the GAPP cited “gross violations of regulations” as the reason behind suspending NetEase’s operating rights to the massively popular online game.
The [GAPP’s] statement indicates that GAPP is returning Shanghai EaseNet's application for approval and Shanghai EaseNet should suspend charging users to play the game and not allow new account registrations. GAPP also notes in its statement that it is evaluating whether to impose administrative penalties on Shanghai EaseNet.
The GAPP’s announcement was certainly nowhere out of the blue. NetEase had launched World of Warcraft in China this September without first seeking explicit approval from the GAPP, contending that the Ministry of Culture had already approved the game’s content.
There has been much speculation as to whether the GAPP is actually reprimanding NetEase for not following protocol or whether the organization is simply slapping the company on the wrist for going to the Ministry of Culture for approval rather than the GAPP. This is what happens when a government has two bodies that perform the same task, and really only adds red tape to an already exasperating process of approval.
NetEase is not the only online gaming company that may incur losses from government regulation. As previously reported, China recently decreased the stream of incoming online games in an effort to control game content. However, rather than dooming this extremely lucrative industry in China (there is an expected 30-50% growth in China’s gaming industry this year), the government simply set caps on foreign investment in the online gaming business.
With a temporary hiatus on NetEase’s WoW success due to a squabble between two government organizations about ‘who’s bigger’, there seems to only be more headaches down the road for online gamers in China... and for the Taiwan servers they invariably turn to.
Nien Cheng, Life and Death in Shanghai author, passes away
Nien Cheng (鄭念), author, has passed away in Washington D.C., according to the Washington Post. The 94-year-old former KMT diplomat is best known for her bestselling autobiography Life and Death in Shanghai, which chronicled the six-and-a-half years she spent as a prisoner during the Cultural Revolution. In one of the most harrowing tales from the book, she finds out that her daughter, a prominent Shanghai film actress, was killed by the Red Guard for refusing to denounce her mother. For summaries and reviews of her seminal memoir, check out the original New York Times book review and this article from Time Magazine.
Video: Halloween 2009 Zombie Walk
We're still bummed out that Halloween is over, so we figured we'd stretch out the mystique of the holiday by featuring this video, shot by contributor Jeremy Breningstall, of what our terrorizing on the Zombie Walk actually looked like. For perusal of pretty pictures: Here's a link to the walk, and here's a link to the party. And remember, if you have any Halloween party pics to contribute, please contact us! You can reach us at info (@) shanghaiist (dot) com.
Google Voice Search now in China, in Mandarin
If you've got a Nokia S60 series and happen to speak Chinese, you can now use Google voice search on your mobile in China. The new service, the first non-English voice search Google has released, is one of many recent attempts to wrestle some more of the market away from current leader Baidu. According to the company, it works best with sharper Mandarin accents (Beijingers might have a little more trouble being understood) and will be rolled out to other phones sometime soon.
Shanghai's top eight scenic spots: It's official
According to Shanghai Daily, more than 33,000 people contributed to the selection of the actual spots, which range from natural to man-made and represent the city's culture and history. The idea of reviving the Eight Spots of Shanghai came from Zhu Yafu, a retired writer who found that only two of the original eight spots, which dated back to the early 1900s, still existed. Go check em' out before these ones disappear too. The new names are: 1. The morning bell of the Bund (wai tan chen zhong) 2. The refined rhythm of Yuyuan Garden (yu yuan ya yun) 3. The new splendor of the old Shikumen (jiu li xin hui) 4. Miles of neon light (shi li ni hong) 5. The green of Sheshan Hill (she shan shi cui) 6. Folk art in Fengjing Town (feng jing xun hua) 7. Grand skyscraper city views (mo tian lan sheng) 8. Elegant water views around Dianshan Lake (dian hu huan xiu) The tourism administration also released a booklet with the official names and descriptions of the spots, as well as 100 other spots in Shanghai, in both Chinese and English. We're wondering if the new names will make any of these sites any more exciting: what do you think?
With the Expo approaching, Shanghai is quickly become more and more official, with roads being paved, mandatory uniforms for taxi drivers, and even rules guiding citizens' subway etiquette, just to name a few of the changes. To keep the changes rolling, the names of Shanghai's official top eight scenic spots have been announced by the Shanghai Tourism Administration, selected from over 1500 suggestions from city dwellers.
Shanghaiist
Shanghaiist is a website about Shanghai, China.Editor: Elaine ChowFounding Editor: Dan WashburnPublisher: Gothamist
The Human Flesh Search Engine phenomenon in China
After the video was posted online, angry viewers figured out who the perpetrator was and then posted her personal information including her home address and her father's cell phone number. The crowd dispersed from the school after speaking to the principal. School authorities are looking into the beating "before deciding on punishment". It's frightening to think what an angry mob could do if a video were doctored or folks target the wrong person in their search for justice. But this cyber posse phenomenon, dubbed in Chinese "the human flesh search engine", can also be used for good purposes. Interested netizens help people find lost relatives and kidnapped children. I posted a story in August about an adopted boy in the US whose adoptive mother used the internet and the help of Chinese netizens to find her son's birth family. The Human Flesh Search Engine phenomenon in China originally appeared on About.com China Online on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 01:54:38.
The renrou ("ren row", 人肉) or human flesh search engine has been at it again. Today the Shanghai Daily reported that after angry netizens (wangmin or 网民) viewed a video posted of a girl beating up another girl at school, 300 of them descended on the school demanding the girl be punished.
You get what you pay for
The Chinese saying is 一汾钱一汾货, "yi fen qian, yi fen huo" (pronounced ee fen chee-ahn, ee fen hoo-oh). This translates literally to one cent gives you one cent's worth of merchandise. Makes sense, right? There's a whole industry of fake goods in China that lots of visitors to China go wild for when they arrive but there's a healthy local market for them as well. It goes beyond pirated DVDs and fake Gucci bags (those are the ones the tourists buy). Very few locals will spend money on legal copies of software when copies of everything from Microsoft Windows and Adobe Photoshop are available for install at every cybermarket. There are smart phones on the market that look like iPhones, operate like iPhones and smell like iPhones for a fraction of the cost (just don't drop it, it will likely shatter and don't expect and after-sale warranties on fake goods). As a travel writer, I get asked frequently where to buy the fake goods. The answer is easy to give: every large market in China sells fake products - be it eyeglasses, watches, bags, shoes, clothing or electronics. But I remind visitors that you get what you pay for. People are often surprised when they get home and their watch doesn't work anymore or their sunglasses don't actually offer any UV protection whatsoever. The best example comes from my poor husband who bought a "leather" briefcase at the old Xiangyang Market (Shanghai's famous fake market that's now been closed and moved). To his credit, he needed a new bag for an upcoming business trip. We lived close by the market so it seemed like a quick and easy option. After an important meeting in Frankfurt, he closed the meeting, grabbed his bag and left the room - with just the handle in hand. You get what you pay for. If you come to China and do some shopping, it will be tempting to sample some of these fake goods. But don't pay too much money for them and don't forget, yi fen qian, yi fen huo. You get what you pay for originally appeared on About.com China Online on Friday, October 23rd, 2009 at 20:00:08.
More about our friend, 牛 the cow
Perhaps, dear reader, you can help us understand the Chinese fascination with the cow / ox / bull, all of which translate into 牛 (niu). We had the huang niu from a few days ago and today I learned a slang word for "cool". Apparently, if you're cool, especially if you're writing on the web, you use the word niubi for something that is super cool. Niu bi is literally a cow's (female) nether-region. We decided "ox" or "bull" is actually cooler in English, but a bull can't have a bi, so there you have it. If you're really stupid, you're a shabi - a stupid cow nether-region. If something is just average stupid, it's erbi - a number 2 cow nether-region. If you want to be cool and you're not, in English you're a poser. In Chinese you're a zhuangbi - a pretend cow nether-region.
As with the huang niu, we couldn't come up with an answer as to why the niu has such interesting connotations. The ox is generally thought of as strong, but being born in the year of the ox does not necessarily make you a niuren, an ultra-cool person. The slang word niubi comes from Beijinghua - the dialect spoken in Beijing. China, as you may know, has thousands of dialects. To a student of Putonghua (mandarin), Shanghaihua is completely unintelligible to me, even after six years of living here. But the pronunciation and meaning of "bi", my teacher pointed out, is universal in most dialects. Therefore the cool? Moo. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture.
More about our friend, 牛 the cow originally appeared on About.com China Online on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 11:51:16.
Discovering Shanghai's Lanes
It actually took me a while to realize there is a network of lanes in Shanghai. When we moved here in 2004, we knew we weren't compound-types. No kids, no furniture, we thought a nice cozy refurbished flat in Shanghai's former French Concession would do us just fine. We found one that suited us after a few weeks of hunting and moved in while the paint was still drying. It was located off the main street, set back with a small private garden. Still navigating using a bilingual map and a lot of hand signals, I didn't get off into unmarked territory for over a year. Then I made a new friend, someone who'd lived in Shanghai for a lot longer than I had and knew the ropes. As we strolled our newborn sons down the Sycamore-lined streets, she introduced me to the shortcuts between main roads, the sudden quiet that engulfs the alleys, the community within the hub: Shanghai's longtangs. It amazed me how a city I'd grown to know - or thought I knew - could surprise me in such a way. Shanghai is a city of layers. For the most part, buildings are like a lazy farmer's fence - rather than strip the paint, he just slaps on another coat. But underneath, there might be some beautiful original wood. Much of Shanghai's art deco and other grand architecture is hidden behind layers of shops-upon-shops. Small flats have been thrown up in the space between the front door of an old villa and the garden gate to house the multitudes that live in the city. Once you know what to look for, you can see the gems beneath. Now I live in a lane house with my family. An interesting mix of East meets West architecture, the row (lane) houses were built en masse in the 1920s and 30s to house the influx of people arriving in Shanghai from the outlying provinces. Usually home to single families, the houses are narrow with small gardens, three floors with small rooms on the half-floor landings. Now they house many families, each to a floor or a room. Some houses are bought by property owners and developers (like mine) and then rented out as a whole unit. It's a nice lifestyle. While quiet when compared to living on a main road, new sounds like neighbors playing mahjong and mynah birds chattering in mandarin now wake us instead of honks and bicycle bells. To read more about life in a lane, read Tom Doctoroff's article on the Huffington Post or Kathy Pauli's blog From my Tingzijian. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. Discovering Shanghai's Lanes originally appeared on About.com China Online on Monday, October 19th, 2009 at 10:46:56.
Gavin Menzies, author of 1421 and 1434 visits Shanghai
I went to a talk today by Gavin Menzies discussing his books 1421 and 1434. The talk was one of M on the Bund's Literary Luncheons and I can't recommend them enough. If you find yourself in Shanghai, please check M's web site to see what's on - it can be really worth your time. Mr. Menzies' discussion focused on the maps he has used to establish his well-received (and much criticized) theory that not only did the Chinese treasure fleets led by Zheng He, the eunuch admiral under the Emperor Zhu Di, map the entire world by 1421, but that European explorers including Columbus, Magellan and da Gama, were armed with copies of these maps when they set out on their own "explorations". What I found terribly interesting was the genesis of Menzies' interest in the subject. During a 1990 visit to Beijing, he found that many of the great accomplishments that are major tourist attractions in the area were completed in 1421. His guide told him that the Great Wall*, the Ming Tomb they had visited and the Forbidden City were all completed in that same year. This was during the legendary Ming Emperor Zhu Di's reign, a forward-thinking man who commissioned the treasure fleets and sent admiral Zheng He with thousands of emissaries to explore the world and bring back diplomats from the places he visited. Menzies decided to go home and compare England at historically the same time. Where British rulers were eating dried cod from plates of stale bread, Zhu Di was celebrating with a massive banquet that included 26,000 guests eating from the finest blue & white Chinese porcelain. It is not difficult for me to make the leap, as Menzies does (with countless items of proof), that the Chinese did, indeed, circumnavigate the globe years before the Europeans did. In any event, whether you're a believer or not, Menzies' theories are interesting reading and subject matter. Don't forget, if we are still to believe the commonly-held opinion that Europeans were the first to map the world, they did so all the while believing the earth was flat. They too were proven wrong. *The Great Wall was not completed in one go. What most of us know now is a Ming Dynasty refurbishment of interconnecting walls begun as early as 656BC during the Chu State. Read more about the History of the Great Wall. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. Gavin Menzies, author of 1421 and 1434 visits Shanghai originally appeared on About.com China Online on Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 10:25:52.
The Tale of the "Huang Niu" Mooncake Scalper
Huang Niu (黄牛) or "yellow bull" is the local term for scalper. My Chinese teacher doesn't have an explanation for why this is and my research failed me; though one person wrote that probably somewhere there's an ancient Chinese idiom that explains it perfectly. As you know, the season for mooncakes just finished up, though every household in China has an abundance of them left to snack on until Chinese New Year. But you may not realize that the mooncake season is also a boon for the huang niu. Scalpers for mooncakes? What, if you can't get that coveted box of Shangri La cakes you'll go to all lengths until you have them? There is probably a good business for huang niu getting the good stuff to re-sell at a profit later. But that's just too obvious. No, I'm speaking about the can't-pick-up-your-mooncakes-in-time huang niu who is actually doing a service. I'm not sure it's a legal service, but everyone involved seems to be happy. Take my friend. Let's call her Zelda. Zelda received a lovely gesture from another friend: a voucher for a box of delicious Häagen-Dazs mooncakes. But when Zelda went to pick them up, that particular Häagen-Dazs outlet wasn't distributing mooncakes. She was told she'd have to go to another branch. Zelda didn't have time for that and she was going out of town the following day and would miss the mooncake pickup deadline (the vouchers have strict expiry dates). She shrugged her shoulders and prepared to go mooncake-less on her way. Up steps Mr. Huang Niu. A group of young men who'd been hanging out inside the Häagen-Dazs were mooncake voucher scalping. Much to Zelda's benefit, the huang niu offered her 200 rmb for the voucher. Zelda walked away a littler richer. The scalper may resell the ticket for 230 and let's say the original cost of the ticket is 250, so some lucky mooncake buyer will get a discount of 20rmb on a box of delectable ice cream cakes. Sure, Zelda's friend may be the only unhappy person in this scenario since she paid the full price. But all things considered, everyone ends up with something. While scalpers can, of course, do some serious price gouging on people who are really in need of hard-to-get goods and services, I think this little fill-in-the-gap economy is great. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. You can also find me on twitter . The Tale of the "Huang Niu" Mooncake Scalper originally appeared on About.com China Online on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 00:02:12.
Happy Anniversary China! Photos from the October 1 parade
From the comfort of our home on a very rainy day in Shanghai, my family tuned in to the PRC's National Day Parade. If you'll recall, I thought it would be fun to take my family to Beijing to watch it live, but found out quickly that going to Beijing was out of the question. The parade was not open to the public. In fact, folks who live downtown or work any where close to the parade route had strict instructions to stay home with their windows shut. It might have been the people's parade, but they were invited to watch it on TV. Luckily, with the help of weather meddling, Beijing had a sunny day. Shanghai was not so lucky. But it has cleared out today so my son and I are going off to buy some mooncakes on Fuzhou Road. Maybe we'll get to see the full moon tomorrow during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Photos: these professional shots of the parade were taken from my living room in Shanghai, October 1, 2009. © 2009 Sara Naumann, licensed to About.com, Inc. Happy Anniversary China! Photos from the October 1 parade originally appeared on About.com China Online on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 21:01:52.
In the end, I think we would have been a bit bored had we gone. While impressive with shear numbers and regiments of military units and tanks and all kinds of equipment I haven't a clue what they are, I was expecting more of a spectacle along the lines of the Olympics Opening Ceremony. But it was a very serious affair with bigwigs like Mr. Hu Jintao and Mr. Jiang Zemin not cracking a smile.
Civil Society
Ive been listening to a few podcasts discussing the loss or lack of civility in the US recently. Weve got Congressman Joe Wilsons outburst during President Obamas health care speech at the forefront, followed up by Kanye West and Serena Williams recent gaffs. Is it coincidence or really an illustration of the decline in American civility? Despite nodding my head in agreement with the pundits who argued it was indeed a real decline, and apologies should be (and were) offered up, I found myself only days later in an interesting dilemma. In China theres a different notion about civility. Diners routinely snap at waitresses to hurry up. Horns blare at the first sign of a green light. Its even difficult to say please in the same way we would in English. And saying thank you to a family member isnt necessary. As I stood for what seemed to me too long in the front of the grocery line with my hand out dangling the cash for my purchases, while the checkout girl took a personal call on her cell phone, my recent agreement on the downfall of American civility vanished as I snapped in Chinese to hurry up. So here I am in China, caught in my own, what my American side tells me is, lack of civility. I would probably not have done this in the US (though admittedly my local grocery store has moved to self-check out, but thats another matter). I put it to my Facebook friends to see what they thought and most agreed that I didnt act circumspectly. Feeling slightly shamed, yet at the same time righteous, I took it to my Chinese lesson where my Chinese teacher was incredulous. Of course its OK to tell the service person to hurry up. Its not even considered a lack of courtesy. My outburst wouldnt even be considered such here in China. Here, many discussions would be considered arguments in the US. (I do not dare compare Chinese culture to any other than my own.) Where Americans are typically non-confrontational, Chinese people can openly discuss their disagreements and, as long as a level of face is kept by both sides, it can end rather amicably. It is not uncommon to see a crowd of people gathered around a traffic incident where the perpetrator is using a very loud and excited voice with the policeman at the site. I gawk at such sightings waiting for the officer to throw the person to the ground yelling Spreadem! but it just doesnt happen here. The discussion on civility led to another interesting topic freedom of speech. Ill save that for another post. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. You can also find Sara on twitter . Civil Society originally appeared on About.com China Online on Thursday, September 24th, 2009 at 01:53:22.
Good news for the environment from China?
From what I witness on a daily basis here in Shanghai old buses belching black exhaust, enormous construction dump trucks barreling down the streets puffing smoke and even little motorbikes burping black clouds from their wee exhaust pipes its hard to believe that China plans on leading climate change. My family even cut a trip to Pingyao short last year because of the pollution there. But if theres another thing Ive witnessed in my past few years here, its that when China sets goals, it usually meets them (and sometimes early). So kudos to Beijing for their plans to reduce greenhouse emissions dramatically by 2020. In yesterdays Financial Times, Fiona Harvey reports that a chief International Energy Agency economist stated [Chinas] emissions [growth] will have declined so much by 2020 that it will be the country that has achieved the largest emission reductions. China will be on the forefront of combating climate change. While slumped economies and funding cuts for new power stations are causes for much of the reduced greenhouse gasses in other countries, China, the land of burning coal and an insatiable appetite for raw materials plans to reduce the growth of emissions while its economy continues to grow. This is truly good news. Source: Fiona Harvey, China to lead on climate change, Financial Times, September 21, 2009. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. Good news for the environment from China? originally appeared on About.com China Online on Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009 at 01:53:47.
Chinese Ideals of Beauty
Albeit halting and painful, at the end of Chinese class yesterday, my classmate and I had an interesting discussion with our teacher about the ideals of beauty. In our lesson, a presumed foreigner discusses her surprise to learn certain cultural aspects of Chinese women and what they do to make or keep themselves beautiful. For example, she states her surprise when she sees ladies using umbrellas on a sunny day. She asks her friend and finds out the point is to shade the skin and keep it lily white. She ends the narration by saying shes learned that Chinese people like big eyes (眼睛大大的), tall noses (鼻子高高的) and white skin (皮肤 白白的). Now before anyones feathers get ruffled, this is straight from the My Chinese Classroom textbook published in China. But the discussion it sparked was interesting. My classmate claimed that these ideals must be somehow influenced from the outside and that until subsets of Chinese society gain more political power, this beauty ideal will survive. Among my acquaintances in Shanghai, its commonly thought that if you have a tan, it makes you look like a manual laborer. So in my classmates mind, when the 农人 (nongren or farmers) have more power, youll see more suntanned faces on the cover of Vogue China. I agree with her to a certain extent, but I think ideals of beauty go farther back or farther in. This set of ideals is not a recent phenomenon. The glory of these features dates back hundreds if not thousands of years in Chinese history. Our Chinese instructor believes it is derived from the fact that big eyes and high noses were rare in Chinese facial features and therefore became desirable. While to my eye, most Chinese ladies look pale, the spectrum is lost on me as Im used to the broad palate of skin and hair color found in North America and Europe. In China, like anywhere, ladies have easier access to achieving the ideal. Beauty products from high-end department stores to convenience stores offer whitening products and plastic surgery for nose jobs and eyelid tucks (making the eyes look wider) are becoming more affordable. But as my classmate states, as differing parts of Chinese society gain political power, will the ideas of beauty change? The vendors selling parasols to the ladies exiting the subway are betting not. From Sara Naumann, About.com's Guide to China Travel, guest-blogger for Chinese Culture. Chinese Ideals of Beauty originally appeared on About.com China Online on Thursday, September 17th, 2009 at 10:22:04.
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China's New Prosperity Leaves Rural Women Behind [VOA]
2004: TWO TRENDS IN RELIGIOUS LIBERTY By Elizabeth Kendal AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- For this end-of-year posting I wish to look at only two trends that were prominent in 2004 and are destined to escalate during 2005. 1)Perestroika. Openness, because of the way osmosis works, is the key which ignites an unstoppable trend towards reform. Openness must therefore be encouraged and used wisely as it provides the momentum and foundations for reform. Meanwhile perestroika (reform) is not an event that occurs at a moment in history, but a process that is fluid, and is a work-in-progress. 2)Liberty. Whose liberty? This is the question arising in multicultural democratic nations as growing Muslim minorities made zealous by the Palestinian Intifada, the War on Terror, and the growth of their own numbers, assert themselves politically and demand Muslim rights and privileges. These however, often involve the removal of others' individual freedoms. -------------------------------------- Events in 2004 in Belarus and Ukraine demonstrate the extent to which perestroika (reform and restructure) is fluid and remains a work-in-progress. Freedoms that were gained in Belarus in the late 1980s have been decisively drained away. Russia's freedoms are slowly and quietly seeping away. Governments can clamp down on freedom but they cannot undo the influence of even a short-lived openness. Ukrainians have just demonstrated that peaceful-people-power can depose corrupt oligarcs and bring political reform. Ukraine's peaceful "Orange Revolution" will stand as a model for action in other authoritarian former Soviet states. This is what can happen when a splintered opposition unites behind a leader of integrity and the people publicly support him or her, and the church prays. But as analysts note, the "Orange Revolution" was not "spontaneous combustion". For Ukraine, the Orange Revolution was the fruit of a society that has matured. In totalitarian Asia, the foundations that enable peaceful political revolution (some free mea, some political awareness, and the possibility of fair elections) are not yet mature, or even in place. Ukraine will however, stand as a model and inspiration to the region and beyond. It might be helpful though, and encouraging, to view totalitarian Asia in the light of Eastern Europe. People often think that Communism fell in an instant in Europe - the terms used are cataclysmic and instant: the Berlin wall "fell", the USSR "collapsed" - and grieve that in Tiananmen Square (Beijing, China), the tanks prevailed. However, it is more realistic and helpful to view these events, not as solitary, decisive "perestroika events" that win or lose the battle, but as positive or negative events in a larger, fluid "perestroika process" that has its own irresistible momentum. Regarding the Berlin Wall, while it did collapse in November 1989, that event was the fruit of a four year process of concerted undermining of the foundations. National transformation is not fast food. It cannot be purchased in a drive-through. It takes time, and if transformation is to occur without bloodshed, revolution and anarchy, then the foundations need to be replaced in advance. SOLZHENITSYN'S FRUSTRATION In 1990, five years after Gorbechev introduced glastnost and perestroika, and one year before the disintegration of the USSR, Alexander Solzhenitsyn wrote words of frustration and fear ("Rebuilding Russia" Harper Collins 1991). These are words that we could apply to totalitarian Asia today. "Time has run out for Communism. But the concrete edifice has not yet crumbled. May we not be crushed beneath its rubble instead of gaining liberty." (p9). "And what have five or six years of the much heralded 'perestroika' been used for? For some pathetic re-shuffling within the Central Committee. The slapping together of an ugly artificial electoral system designed to allow the party to continue clinging to power." (p28) Deng Xioaping introduced economic openness and reforms to China in 1978, but how far has China progressed towards freedom? Is totalitarian Asia today in the same position Russia was in 1990? The momentum for reform is gaining. Whether they realise it not, the Asian Communist Parties and the regime of Kim jong-il may be facing a situation of reform or perish. ASIA'S PERESTROIKA-LITE Totalitarian Asia has learnt from Gorbechev's accidental political suicide that openness and reform, if not carefully managed, may eventually prove fatal. Totalitarian Asia operates therefore, a sort of glastnost-lite, and perestroika-lite. But since the demise of Gorbechev, the USSR and Communism in Europe, the reins are held especially tight in Asia to ensure that the process does not gain so much momentum that the Communist Party loses control of it. The best way to slow down reform is to slow down and manage openness. Everything, especially information, is controlled by those whose main aim now is to hold on to power. Solzhenitsyn grieved for Russia as we do now for totalitarian Asia, that the slowness of reform "represents years in the people's life given up to pointless suffering". (p35) However, he also notes that wholesale adoption of a foreign system can be ruinous and that patience is always better than a bloody and violent revolution which results in anarchy, which he describes as "the ultimate peril". AVOIDING ANARCHY Solzhenitsyn acknowledges in his chapter, "Is the system of government really the central issue?" that continuity and stability are essential to avoid anarchy, and hence, it is more important to resolve the most pressing issues of social reform before tackling government reform. Solzhenitsyn believed that the entire state organism could be eventually reshaped by introducing reforms gradually, progressively, starting at the margins and in grass-roots issues, whilst preserving the central authority until society is ready for political reform. This is, of course, exactly what has occurred in Ukraine. This, and not "regime collapse" or a revolution that would result in war or anarchy, is what must be encouraged and assisted in totalitarian Asia, including and especially North Korea, where the situation is so extremely dangerous. While we grieve for the 100,000 believers incarcerated in North Korean concentration camps, regime collapse in North Korea would probably lead to their slaughter as the military machine shifted into self-preservation mode. We do not wish for Korean Christians to be "crushed beneath the rubble" of a collapsing regime and system. We wish them liberty, so we pray for wisdom in 2005, for openness and reform to advance, and for liberty for the oppressed. "The king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord; he turns it wherever he pleases." Proverbs 21:1 ---------------------------------- There needs to be public debate about whether religious groups, because of a constitutional right they have to religious freedom, can demand that they exercise their own religious law in a way that denies others that same constitutional right. This issue is affecting multicultural democracies that have growing Muslim minorities who are demanding Muslim laws and rights to accommodate those elements of Islamic law and culture that clash with Western, Judaeo-Christian-based laws and culture. PARALLEL OR GRID? Some governments are capitulating to Muslim demands out of sheer (or wilful) ignorance of what Islam permits and demands, or simply in order to capture the valuable Muslim vote or be politically correct and inclusive. Various degrees of Islamic arbitration or law for Muslims now exists in many non-Muslim nations - officially, as in Canada, and unofficially as in much of Europe, while the battle for Islamic courts is still on in Kenya. We often picture a society that permits both Western / Judaeo-Christian laws and Islamic laws as one that has two sets of laws running in parallel. But really the situation looks more like a grid, as the two systems - Judaeo-Christian and Islamic - regularly intersect and clash as they head in different directions. In Uganda, women have praised the government's new Domestic Relations Bill (DRB) 2003 (passed November 2004) because it prohibits polygamy, raises the marriage age to 18 years, protects against domestic violence and rape in marriage, which in turn protects against AIDS. The Bill promotes equal rights, bringing Uganda's laws in line with its own constitution. However, the Uganda Muslim Supreme Council (UMSC) is protesting against the bill claiming it goes against the Islamic faith and Islamic laws and customs. Hopefully the Ugandan government will not be moved by such protests, and the protections and rights granted to Ugandan women will remain available to Ugandan Muslim women. Governments that capitulate to Muslim demands are actually stripping Muslims of their religious freedom and shackling Muslim women to the demeaning, discriminatory and oppressive demands and penalties of sharia. There can be no mistake, the two systems do not run parallel - they are in conflict. VILIFICATION Previously in the West, Muslims have had to endure the Western/European practice of open debate and free speech. Criticism was handled by apologists, not by lawyers. But times are changing. Limits are being placed on long-held and respected freedoms in order not to "offend", regardless of how unjustifiable that feeling of offence might be, as if the giving of offence is automatically an intolerable crime. In the process, all critical debate of Islam and the Qur'an by non-Muslims is being silenced. On 17 December 2004, in Victoria, Australia, two Christian pastors were found guilty of breaching the state's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act 2001. The charge of vilifying Islam was brought against pastors Nalliah and Scot (photo, link 1) by the Islamic Council of Victoria (ICV). The case was heard in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) over the course of nearly two years. The ICV claimed the pastors vilified Islam and thus breached section 8 of the Act in a Christian seminar entitled "Insight into Islam", held in a church in March 2002. The details are complicated and a more focused posting may be released in early February after penalties have been determined. The most serious element of this case is the fact that truth is not a defence. Section 8 of the Act states: "A person must not, on the ground of the religious belief or activity of another person or class of persons, engage in conduct that incites hatred against, serious contempt for, or revulsion or severe ridicule of, that other person or class of persons. Note: 'engage in conduct' includes use of the internet or e-mail to publish or transmit statements or other material." As noted by Andrew Bolt, an associate editor and columnist for the Melbourne (Australia) Herald Sun, 8 of the 13 reasons the judge listed in his summary of why he found the pastors guilty of vilifying Islam are actually quotes from the Qur'an. (Link 2). In fact at one point in the VCAT hearing, Daniel Scot was asked to justify his statement that the Qur'an is harsh to women. As he did, he was accused of further vilifying Islam with quotes from the Qur'an! Scot was ordered to refrain from quoting the Qur'an in his response to avoid further vilification of Islam! Section 11 of the Act provides that a person may be granted an exemption if the conduct was engaged in reasonably, in good faith, and in the public interest. However, the judge determined that: "Pastor Scot's conduct was not engaged in reasonably and in good faith for any genuine religious purpose that is in the public interest... Having made that finding, he receives no protection under section 11 of the Act." The President of the ICV, Mr. Yasser Soliman hailed the judgement as "a win for religious debate", adding, "This case lays some basic ground rules for religious debate in Victoria." Waleed Aly, a spokesperson for the ICV wrote in a Melbourne paper, that citizens have the right to "inform, but not inflame". This still leaves us with the problem of what to do with potentially inflammatory information. DHIMMITUDE This silencing of criticism has historically been part of the agreement with dhimmis, people of the Book living under Islamic domination. Dhimmis were granted "protection", that is, right to life in exchange for payment (jizya) and total subjugation. Any breach of the arrangement led to "protection" being withdrawn and a state of war resuming upon the individual or group. Laws that silence or punish negative criticism of Islam place non-Muslims in a position of dhimmitude. In Britain, Prince Charles recently met with Christian and Muslim leaders to broker efforts to end the Muslim death penalty on apostates. The London Telegraph reported, "The Muslim group, which included the Islamic scholar Zaki Badawi, cautioned the Prince and other non-Muslims against speaking publicly on the issue." (Telegraph 18 Dec 2004) Of even greater interest are the words of Ahmad Kamal Abul Magd, a prominent Islamic scholar who addressed the recent UN-sponsored seminar, "Confronting Islamophobia: Education for Tolerance and Understanding", on Tuesday 7 December 2004. Abul Magd believes the word "tolerance" is derogatory of Islam. "What we are aiming at is much more positive than the mere tolerance. Usually you don't tolerate something you admire or like but you tolerate something you are going to live with although you do not like (it)." (Islam Online 8 Dec 2004). Abul Magd is not interested in promoting tolerance - he is advocating that we should respect, admire and like Islam. He then gave reasons why we should revere Islam, reasons which were based on a totally revisionist view of history. THE PROBLEM OF THE MISSING ABSOLUTES Most Western governments are honourably keen to advance equal rights for all. But they are unwilling to face the fact that the "rights" of different cultures sometimes conflict. On top of this, they are so committed to secularism and appeasement that they can do nothing else other than advance the myth that all moral values (in the absence of moral absolutes) are essentially equal and good. They refuse to accept the fact that many Islamic laws and customs actually violate the laws of the land and the constitutional rights of citizens. They tolerate, and even advance, intolerance at the behest of pressure groups because that is preferable to, and easier than, imposing moral standards for the benefit of all citizens, including voiceless minorities (eg apostates and Muslim women). So what will it take for governments and societies to realise how precious and worth preserving are their Judaeo-Christian foundations, rights and freedoms? Will it take sectarian murder and violence, as was seen in the Netherlands this year with the murder of film maker Theo van Gogh, who was slain by an Islamic militant? This followed the screening of his 11-minute film on Islam entitled "Submission", the script of which was written by Ayaen Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born woman who fled an arranged marriage and became a refugee, apostasised in Europe, and became a Dutch MP in 2003. The Dutch are now looking at issues of immigration, multiculturalism and assimilation. In the light of the events of 2004, Bat Ye'or's new book "Eurabia" (due for release in April/May 2005) will surely beone of the most confronting, controversial and challenging books of 2005. STANDING UP FOR LIBERTY As Islamic rights are advanced in the non-Muslim world, Muslims who seek liberty find that sharia is an inescapable stalker, and non-Muslims are being forced to comply with elements of dhimmitude, commencing with self-hatred and advancing to submission. Standing up for liberty means standing against sharia for the liberty of Muslims, and against dhimmitude for the liberty of the rest of society. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) NALLIAH and SCOT 2) Playing with fire. By Andrew Bolt. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service
PERESTROIKA
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LIBERTY
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Links
http://community.webshots.com/album/233515462eSqZeM
Herald Sun. 22 Dec 2004
http://heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,11754577,00.html
Elizabeth Kendal is the Principal Researcher and Writer for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC) www.worldevangelical.org/rlc.html. This article was initially written for the World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty News & Analysis mailing list.
China Arrests 11 Falun Gong Members for Posting Torture Photos on Internet [VOA]
Reporters without Borders says at least 20 other Falun Gong members are in custody for posting photos to Internet [more]
Tsunami toll still rising. The Daily Telegraph, Conservative daily of London, England [Breaking News Headlines from Around the World, Powered by Worldpress.org]
Chinese aid joins world rescue. CHINAdaily Dec 28 2004 6:28PM GMT [Moreover - China news]
HK people warmly participate in relief of tidal waves disaster. Xinhua News Agency Dec 28 2004 6:21PM GMT [Moreover - China news]
Chinese Activist Wins Press Freedom Award [VOA] Despite repeated government efforts to silence him, Liu Xiaobo refuses to back down. The former Beijing University teacher has been in and out of prison since 1989, when he spoke out in support of the students involved in the pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square. Wednesday, the organization Reporters Without Borders honored his courage and his commitment to a free press, naming him the leading defender of press freedoms in 2004. Vincent Brossel of Reporters without Borders says Mr. Liu has consistently championed an open society, and has called for the release of jailed reporters, at a risk to his personal freedom. "He's facing a real risk," said Vincent Brossel. "He has been fighting for freedom of expression for years. He can be arrested at any time." Forty nine-year-old Mr. Liu is the director of the Chinese PEN Center, the country's only independent advocate for the rights of journalists. He spent two years in jail for participating in the 1989 democracy movement. In 1996, the government sentenced him to another three years in a labor camp for criticizing the Communist Party. Earlier this year he published an online essay that criticized government use of subversion charges against some journalists. Authorities cut off his telephone and Internet service in May, and repeatedly denied his requests for a passport. He and two other prominent intellectuals were briefly detained earlier this month, accused of revealing state secrets to foreigners. Mr. Brossel says Beijing once again trying to tighten its control over its social critics, and cited a number of recent actions. "Officials are targeting respected intellectuals, journalists, freedom activists in the past three days one journalist has been arrested and one farmers' rights activist was under detention," he said. Other press freedom awards went to an Algerian journalist who was jailed for libel after exposing corruption, and a Mexican weekly newspaper that saw three of its reporters killed after a series of investigative reports.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) official unveils the 3 winners of the RSF - Fondation de France Prize 2004
Liu Xiaobo, a prominent Chinese dissident, has won an international award as a defender of press freedoms. The announcement comes as a number of prominent activists in China are being arrested or detained.
Chinese workers blog in protest. From Poynter E-Media Tidbits, Fons Tuinstra reports from Shanghai that "Chinese strikers use weblogs for their struggle. " The worker's blog is here. The first article on the blog is the New York Times report on their strike. This is... [China Digital News]
China breifly detained 'outspoken' editorial writer. From Reuters, via the New Zealand Herald: "China has arrested the chief editorial writer at China Reform magazine, continuing a Communist Party campaign to silence outspoken liberal intellectuals, sources familiar with the case said on Tuesday. Journalist Chen Min, who... [China Digital News]
China turns on intellectuals. Chinese police arrest one of the country's most influential journalists in campaign to stifle critical discussion. [Guardian Unlimited World Latest]
Unseasonal strife in Santa's little sweatshops. Chinese workers in the sweatshops of Guangdong have been demonstrating their discontent by striking, smashing their factories, and not turning up for work. [Telegraph News | International News]
HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES TO PROTEST CHINA’S POLICY OF REPATRIATING NORTH KOREAN REFUGEES
By John M. Lindner
Special to ASSIST News Service
WASHINGTON, DC (ANS) -- Human rights advocates are planning a worldwide protest this Wednesday, December 22, against China’s policy of repatriating North Korean refugees.
The protests are scheduled to be held at Chinese embassies and consulates in major cities worldwide, including Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, Toronto, Houston, London, Tokyo, Osaka, Sydney, Seoul and Pusan. The campaign is being planned by South Korea based International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of the NK Refugees.
Mrs. Suzanne Scholte of the North Korea Freedom Coalition will lead the 11 a.m. protest in Washington, D.C. at the Chinese embassy, 2000 Connecticut Ave., N.W. A crowd of about 100 persons is expected to join in the D.C. protest, representing a score of U.S. human rights agencies, including the Wilberforce Forum and the Defense Forum Foundation.
Hannah Song of Liberation in North Korea (LiNK) will lead a protest at China’s Mission to the U.N. in New York. LiNK was started by a Yale student in March 2004 and has rapidly grown to 70 chapters across the U.S., with additional chapters in Europe and South Korea.
The protest movement carries the endorsement of U.S. Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS) and Congressmen Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and Christopher Cox (R-CA). President George W. Bush signed into law the North Korean Human Rights Act (H.R. 4011) on October 18, which defends human rights of N.K. refugees, sets stricter guidelines providing humanitarian help for those suffering in N.K., and provides for NK refugees to seek asylum in the U.S.
According to U.S. News and World Report, more than 400,000 persons are believed to have perished in North Korean prison camps the last 30 years. At least 200,000 are currently being detained and brutalized in government-run gulags. Two of the camps are larger in area than the District of Columbia, and a third is three times the size of D.C.[1]
The regime of North Korea President, Kim Jong Il, is also responsible for the 4 million North Koreans who have died of starvation since 1995, using international food aid to stockpile the nation’s military complexes instead of feeding its people.[2]
South Korean human rights groups estimate that more than 200,000 North Koreans are living in hiding in China, waiting for a chance to defect to South Korea. There they are welcomed by ethnic Korean Christians and Chinese nationals, but if caught by China’s military police, are forcefully repatriated back to North Korea, where they face inevitable punishment, imprisonment and even death.
According to North Korean law, defection is punishable by death, and just attempting to defect is considered treason.
Nearly 6,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, including 1,139 in 2002, 1,281 in 2003 and about 1,500 so far this year.
China’s policy of repatriating NK refugees violates the 1951 U.N. Convention on Refugees, of which China is a signatory.
At the protest in D.C., Scholte plans to read aloud the list of North Korean defectors seized by Chinese authorities.
“Reading the list is important,” Scholte told ASSIST News Service in an email.
“Having been involved in a number of protests, I did wonder whether reading this list was having an impact since the Chinese usually blocked us from delivering the list and petitions to their embassies at past protests. Earlier this year in March during the International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees sponsored by the Citizens Alliance and held in Warsaw, Poland, we read this list once again in front of the Chinese embassy. In August, 6 months later, I got this email from Human Rights activist Sang Hun Kim:
“I have very encouraging news for you, Suzanne! As you must have been informed, Mr. Kim Hee-tae was found ‘not guilty’ by the Chinese court and he is now with me in Seoul. One of the first things he told me was that sometime last March, he managed to keep a radio at night in the prison...and, one night, heard your voice calling his name in front of the Chinese Embassy in Poland through Radio Free Asia. Isn't it amazing! He was so encouraged and filled with new strength to fight at that time.”[3]
“China cannot avoid international scrutiny for her treatment of North Koreans and their human rights defenders,” says a LiNK press release. “On December 22, 2004, we ask that those of conscience voice their outrage at this grave and tragic injustice.”
Participating agencies based in South Korea include the NK Network for NK Democracy and Human Rights, the Pnan Organization, the NK Defectors Association, the International Coalition for NK Human Rights, the Commission to Help NK Refugees, the NK Defector Businessmen’s Association, the Save Choi Young-Yun, and the Durihana Missionary organizations. [4]
The Save Choi Young-Hun group was founded out of concern for Mr. Choi Young Yunj, a South Korean human rights activist who was part of the failed boat people rescue, was arrested by the Chinese, and has been in prison for two years, according to coalition spokesperson, Eileen Choi.
A complete list of NK detainees can be found at www.nkzone.org and scroll down for “the List.”
A complete list of participating organizations can be found at www.nkrefugee.org/ and click on “campaign plan.”
______________________________________________________________________
Chinese President Hu Jintao hailed the success of the "one-country, two systems" policy in Macau Monday, as he led 5th anniversary celebrations of the former Portuguese enclave's return to China. But the Chinese leader expressed dissatisfaction with the leadership of Hong Kong. On his first visit to Macau as China's president, Hu Jintao praised the territory's record in the five years since its return to Chinese sovereignty. The territory, administered by Portugal for more than 400 years, is enjoying an unprecedented economic boom, fueled by foreign investments in its recently liberalized gambling industry. Mr. Hu says time has proven that the "one country, two systems" formula is, in his words, "entirely correct". China's late leader, Deng Xiaoping, crafted the concept of "one country, two systems" to deal with the then impending return of Macau and the British colony of Hong Kong in the late 1990s. The policy provided for a high degree of political autonomy for the two territories and preserved their capitalist systems, despite China's communist system. The model was also meant to entice Taiwan, which has been self-governed since 1949, to return to Beijing's rule. But while Macau has experienced stability and growth, Hong Kong has been beset by economic and political troubles since Britain handed it back to China in 1997. The outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome last year and demands for greater democracy have been among the many challenges the local administration has faced. Beijing has refused to allow universal suffrage in Hong Kong in 2007 and 2008, when the next elections for the territory's legislature and chief executive are scheduled - prompting mass protests earlier this year. On Sunday, Hong Kong's government suffered another embarrassment, when a court challenge forced it to scrap a $3 billion privatization of the commercial assets of its public housing estates. At the Macau celebrations Monday, President Hu publicly berated Hong Kong's leaders, including Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa, who stood by looking uncomfortable as Mr. Hu spoke. Mr. Hu told officials to reflect on what Hong Kong has gone through since returning to China, examine its shortcomings, and improve its capabilities. President Hu has not visited Hong Kong since becoming China's president and Communist party leader last year.
Chinese President Praises Macau, Criticizes Hong Kong [VOA]
TORTURED FOR THE LORD
By Jeremy Reynalds
Special Correspondent for ASSIST News Service
CHINA (ANS) -- While Americans gear up to celebrate Christmas and enjoy God’s blessings, numerous Christians in China are carrying their cross for Lord. In His Name they are tortured, jailed, detained, tortured, fined or separated from their families.
The Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China’s (CIPRC) Chief Secretary John Lee sent this compelling and yet tragic story of the torture that four Christian evangelists suffered because of preaching the gospel.
Lee explained by e-mail how his organization obtained the account. He wrote, “God has moved many brave Christians in China in interviewing and collecting the persecution cases. Then they smuggle these reports to us in the United States. In the past several years, we have received thousands and thousands of the bloody cases. (But) we have lost many people because of this.”
Lee added, “Due to the nature of our ministry, our organization has become the target of the Chinese Communist Party’s ‘secret force’ in the U.S. They tried various means to stop us, such as stalking, intimidating, etc. But ‘The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’”
With that in mind, Lee wrote, “What should we do when knowing what have happened to our brothers and sisters? Where is our own cross? ‘Jesus said, ‘And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.’” (Luke 14:27)
A Tragic Story
According to the account from CIPRC, on Feb. 23 2003 four Christians were arrested and brutally tortured by police from Boli County, in China’s Heilongjiang Province.
Four policemen led by Weidong Sun from Chenxi Police Station drove two cars to Xiuying Chen’s home, and arrested Dan Deng, 38, an evangelist who rented a room there. There the police waited for three other Christians coming to meet Deng. They were Qingshan Qi, 29, Shengbin Man, 23, and Jiyan Cheng, 49.
At the police station, Sun and other officers surrounded Qi. Without any warning, Sun grabbed Qi’s hair and pushed his head between Sun’s thighs. The other two officers then kicked him in the back with leather shoes before slapping him on the face and kicking him on the ground for more than a half hour. Then they searched Qi, seizing 400 RMB ($50) and a variety of possessions. The police then demanded that Qi tell them the names of other Christians and where they met.
When Qi kept silent, the officers forced him into an excruciatingly painful posture known as “motorcycle-riding” – where the upper body is bent forward and one’s legs are stretched out. Officers then kicked Qi in the back between 50 and 60 times.
After about an hour, Sun took a chair and sat in front of Qi, saying, “I will see how long you can bear. I swear to make you confess!” Then with one hand holding Qi’s right arm, he used his other hand to hold a cigarette lighter and repeatedly burn Qi’s palm.
Later that day, Cheng was dragged into a room and put onto a “tiger” chair. There her legs were tightened, her left hand was tied to the chair’s low back while her right hand was attached to the upper back portion of the chair. Then the police officer forced her right arm down, making her scream in pain. When another officer saw that this wasn’t having the desired effect, he started slapping her face for a while.
Then another policeman came and continued the torture. Lifting Cheng’s clothes and starting from her breast and working on down, he pressed his fingers between her ribs. This caused such extreme pain she felt her heart was going to come out of her body.
The torture continued with a different officer – this one using a needle. He stuck the needle into Cheng’s knee between her bones a number of times and twisted it brutally. Then he started to poke her arms with the needle. Cheng’s legs were covered with bruises. Finally, the officer poked the needle through her upper lip.
Man was also beaten up. One policeman bashed his nose and followed that by grabbing his hair and smashing his head onto the wall. Sun pushed Man’s head against the corner of a steel cabinet, and then forced him to assume a posture known as “airplane-driving.” Another officer kicked Man on the back between 30 and 40 times for about an hour. The police confiscated his money and possessions. He was beaten again twice before being sent to the detention center.
Deng was interrogated for eight hours the next morning. He was brutalized so badly that his face was deformed.
Around 6:00pm the same day the police sent all the evangelists to the county North Jail. On March 10 they were transferred to the county detention center.
Qi was bailed out by his family at 4000 RMB ($500). He was released at about midnight on March 10.
Cheng was half dead from the torture before being released at midnight the same day.
Man was detained for 48 days. On April 12 his family bailed him out for 800 RMB ($100).
Deng was assigned to cook at the detention center but escaped and nobody knows where she is now.
According to CIPRC, the group was founded in 2000 in New York. Its objectives are to reveal the plight that the Chinese house church Christians have suffered, and to call on believers in the free world to help their brothers and sisters in the persecuted church.
For additional information about CIPRC go to www.china21.org
NORTH KOREA'S BALANCING ACT
- plus two articles on two kidnapped South Korean pastors
By Elizabeth Kendal
World Evangelical Alliance Religious Liberty Commission (WEA RLC)
Special to ASSIST News Service
AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- NK AMENDS CRIMINAL CODE TO ASSIST MARKETS AND CRUSH DISSENT
Park Song-wu reports for the Korea Times, "North Korea has strengthened legal measures to protect private property in a recent revision of its criminal law, while stiffening penalties for anti-state crimes, according to a copy obtained by a local broadcaster.
"North Korea experts in Seoul said the revision, the fifth since 1950, can be understood as Pyongyang’s efforts to achieve two goals at the same time – safeguarding its communist regime and boosting its impoverished economy." (Link 1)
While prison sentences for theft, counterfeiting, evading tax and infringing copyright have been increased, so too have sentences for "anti-state crimes". Instead of facing a prison sentence of 5-10 years, those participating in armed riots will now receive "more than 5 years" – the ceiling has been abolished. Instigators of armed riots will face life imprisonment or the death penalty. Likewise, defectors who flee North Korea in an act of betrayal will also face "more than 5 years", instead of 5-10 years. Those who have defected, but are willing to declare loyalty to the regime and confess to being "economic migrants" will be pardoned upon their return. In future, those who flee for "non-political reasons" will receive two years in prison instead of three.
One new subject for punishment under the revised criminal law is keeping or distributing "anti-state broadcast materials". A person found guilty will receive a 2-5 year prison sentence. According to the Korea Times, "Experts believe the clause was created to prohibit North Koreans from listening to U.S.-funded radio broadcasts that will be bolstered next year with the endorsement of the North Korean Human Rights Bill in October."
Another new subject for punishment is the distribution of culturally "obscene" materials such as CDs, videotapes and music.
The Korea Times reports that Professor Ryoo Kihl-jae of the Graduate School of North Korean Studies at Kyungnam University questions Pyongyang’s intentions for the revisions of the criminal law. He believes that criminal law is not important in North Korea and the authorities will punish whoever they want using other means. Professor Ryoo believes the purpose of the revision is purely to make the world aware of North Korea's criminal law and of the penalties law-breakers will suffer. It is designed to give confidence to investors, and deter reformist agitators and "anti-state" agents.
MARKET REFORMS PRODUCE OPENINGS
The Kim jong-Il regime introduced market reforms in July 2002. The reforms, however, sent inflation soaring and drastically widened the income gap. Paik Hak-soon, director of North Korean Studies at the Sejong Institute, told the Korea Times that, "Kim Jong-il is now trying to prevent social problems from drastically undermining his regime."
The free-market reforms have also brought many North Korean traders into contact with the outside world. As noted in a recent Washington Post (WP) article entitled, "For North Korea, Openness Proves a Two-Way Street" (13 Dec 2004), "...diplomats, analysts, intelligence sources and recent defectors say that the once airtight lid on information in what is known as the Hermit Kingdom is gradually loosening."
The WP article states, "Asian intelligence sources estimate that as many as 20,000 North Koreans -- particularly those trading in the newly thriving border area with China -- now have access to Chinese cellular phones, from which they can make undetected international calls in large areas of northern North Korea." Also, at the new Kaesong Industrial Park near the border with South Korea, and the tourist resort at Mount Kumgang, South Korean firms are directly employing and paying North Korean workers for the first time.
The WP quotes Sohn Kwang Joo, managing editor of the North Korea Daily (a Seoul-based website) as saying, "North Korean people and the elite bureaucrats all want more reform. But the faster the doors open, the more vulnerable becomes Kim Jong Il's tight grip of the nation. Kim Jong Il will therefore try to control and limit the opening. But as more people cross in and out of the border, there are more mobile phones, and more flows of information, the North Korean people will begin to realize the truth about Kim Jong Il."
David Wall, an associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, recently traveled along the China-North Korean border and wrote a report that was published in the Japan Times. (Link 2)
He notes that Koreans have been crossing the frozen border rivers for generations and at least 2.3 million Koreans now live in China along the North Korean border. He says there have been between 200,000 to 300,000 recent illegal arrivals and, "The Korean communities are easy to identify by the many Christian churches, complete with spires and crosses on top." Wall believes that the immense vastness of the refugee/illegal immigrant situation makes it simply unmanageable for Chinese police who, he says, tend to leave the "migrants" alone unless they engage in criminal activity or publicly expose themselves in media stunts.
Wall says, "There is growing legal and even cross-border investment in which the Chinese Korean community is active. Every day hundreds, sometimes thousands, of traders and tourists cross the borders. They are not closed. It is easy for the migrants to move between the communities and send goods and money back."
MAINTAINING A TIGHT GRIP
North Korea is following China and Vietnam and gingerly opening up and reforming, to some degree, under a dictator who will not permit his rule to be threatened and who will, in any way, be propped up and supported by China in the event of any threat. The reforms are threatening the regime, so to ensure that situation does not get out of control, the regime (especially when it feels threatened) slows the process down and tightens its oppressive grip in a perpetual give and take balancing act.
Hamish McDonald reported to the Melbourne AGE (Australia) on 29 November that Pyongyang has asked the United Nations aid agencies to cut their foreign staff in the country by half. The regime has also said that it wants all international non-government organisations to quit once current programs are ended. There are five UN agencies, with about 64 foreign staff, operating inside North Korea. McDonald writes, "A narrowing of the world's main window into North Korea - through international aid organisations - could fit with the scenario of a hardliners' backlash, some UN officials speculate."
North Korea specialists in South Korea and China are positive that Kim's grip on power is rock solid, and that there is no imminent threat of regime collapse. However, Cho Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told Reuters recently (26 Nov 2004), "I think there will be a drastic change to the Kim Jong-il regime at a certain point in time. But the change to the power structure is not likely to come from below. The change is likely to come from a high level, and once it happens, it's going to move very quickly."
Cho Min seems to believe that "change" (and he uses that term quite ambiguously) is inevitable, given the momentum now for openness and reform.
Next year – 2005 – will be the fifth anniversary of the signing of the North-South Joint Declaration at the historic15 June 2000 Reunification talks in Pyongyang (see link 3), and the 60th anniversary of Korean independence (15 August 1945 – liberation from Japanese colonial rule). And we continue to pray.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
TWO ARTICLES ON TWO KIDNAPPED PASTORS
--------------------------------------------------------------------
South Korean pastor, the Reverend Ahn Seung-un (60), is believed to have been kidnapped from Yanji city while assisting refugees on the China/North Korea border in 1995. He has now emerged in North Korea, working for the official Korean Christian Federation and tightly controlled by North Korean guards.
Ex-South Korean Pastor Works for N. Korean Christian Federation
Korea Times, 7 Dec 2004
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200412/kt2004120717520311990.htm
------------------------
South Korean pastor, the Reverend Kim Dong-shik (57) was kidnapped from Yanji in 2000. He remains missing. On Friday 10 December, a 35-year-old Korean national named Ryu was detained in South Korea and charged with pastor Kim's abduction. Ryu was trained in Pyongyang and worked with a team of 10 North Korean agents to abduct pastor Kim whose name was on a list of those targeted by Pyongyang for abduction.
Government Urged to Press for Release of Kidnapped Pastor
By Reuben Staines, Park Song-wu
Korea Times, 14 Dec 2004
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200412/kt2004121416470311950.htm
Links
1) NK Adopts Market-Friendly Criminal Law
Korea Times 8 Dec 2004
http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200412/kt2004120816030010440.htm
2) No witch hunt for North Koreans in China
By DAVID WALL, Special to The Japan Times, 6 Dec 2004
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20041206a1.htm
3) North-South Joint Declaration
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/791691.stm
Radio Free China
News from China & asia with a focus on human rights and religious liberty.
"Do you know what I want? I want justice--oceans of it.
I want fairness--rivers of it.
That's what I want. That's all I want." [Amos 5:24]
Chang'e I survives its darkest hour
Chang'e I, China's pioneering lunar probing satellite, came through its first lunar eclipse yesterday and has regained full operations.
Second human bird flu fatality in Feb.
H5N1 bird flu claimed its second human fatality in China this month when the Ministry of Health confirmed the death of a Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region man on Thursday.
China to hear largest fake receipts case
A local court in China's southwestern Yunnan Province will hear the largest ever case of making and selling fake receipts on Friday after more than 1 million bogus receipts worth 1.05 trillion yuan (US$147.3 billion) were confiscated.
China tightens M&A rules for listed companies
China has set up an individual committee to oversee the merger and acquisition (M&A) of its listed companies, as this resources allocation maneuver becomes increasingly important in the country's financial markets.
China loses hope for title to Japan
China had their title hopes dashed in Chongqing on Wednesday as they were beaten 1-0 by Japan at the East Asian Football Championship (EAFC).
China denies US steel energy subsidy report
A Chinese industry group on Wednesday denied the claims of a US study released last month, which stated that massive government energy subsidies had fueled the country's steel exports.
Wu Bangguo meets Japanese guests
Top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo met with a delegation of Japanese Upper House on Wednesday, calling for enhanced parliamentary exchanges and bilateral ties.
Plan in place to tackle pollution in dam area
The cleanliness of the main body of water in China's Three Gorges Dam area has improved a little but water quality in several branches is getting worse, said the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) on Tuesday.
Heroes come in many colors
Qian Xuesen, regarded as father of China's space program, has been named one of the 11 people that inspired China the most in 2007. Over the past six years, the CCTV programme of "Inspiring People" has given honors to more than 60 persons.
6 killed in Guangxi coach-truck collision
Six people were killed and 12 injured after a coach and a truck collided early on Sunday in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said police.
Alarm removed in snow-hit areas
China's State Disaster Relief Commission and the Ministry of Civil Affairs have canceled emergence alarms in seven provinces ravaged by the worst blizzards and winter storms in decades as of Friday.Β
-Donations to disaster-hit areas reach 1.45b yuan
Trade surplus falls to lowest since May
The country's trade surplus last month continued its downward trend to US$19.49 billion, with efforts to curb exports paying off and imports rising, customs authorities said on Friday.
Calls for national insurance fund
The national insurance regulator yesterday called for the establishment of a disaster insurance fund to better deal with catastrophes and improve the efficiency of relief work.
Suspect arrested for killing nine
A man suspected of killing nine of his relatives in Baoding, Hebei Province, during the Spring Festival holiday was arrested on Thursday.
I will go to the Olympics: Bush
US President George W. Bush has said he will not use the Olympics as an opportunity to criticize China, nor will he change his plan to attend the Games in Beijing this summer.
Restaurant fire kills 11 in E. China
Eleven people have been killed in a restaurant fire at 1:50 AM Friday in Yiting Town, Yiwu City, east China's Zhejiang Province.
WTO steps to resolve tax dispute respected
China will act according to the rules, officials said Thursday over a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute on car parts which some experts have said is unfair to the country.
2 teenage skaters drowned in Yunnan
Two teenagers were drowned when skating on a lake in southwest China's Yunnan Province on Wednesday after the ice cracked and eight boys fell into freezing water. Two others among the rescued are in critical condition.
China cuts roaming service charges
The Ministry of Information Industry and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly announced on Wednesday the country's mobile roaming service charges would be lowered starting from March 1 amid fervor of consumer expectation to entirely abolish them.
WHO sees legacy of health from Games
In addition to the world-class sports venues, new jobs, and good memories, the Olympics health legacy will stand as a long-term gift to China, a World Health Organization official said.
Top News
Visitors to Olympics urged to get permits
Beijing police will begin to check temporary residence permits from tomorrow.
Scientists: Rising seas threaten erosion on shores
Large swathes of deltas along China's shore are threatened by erosion as sea levels rise, oceanic authorities said.
Taiwan announces candidates for leadership election
The list of candidates for Taiwan's coming leadership election was announced on Friday, local media in Taipei reported.
Airport in Beijing beefs up security measures
Police at Beijing Capital International Airport are about to take delivery of new hi-tech devices intended to fight terrorism during the Beijing Olympic Games this summer.
Crucial rural knowledge
The second national census on agriculture shed needed light on the latest progress and problems in the development of agriculture and the countryside. Policymakers should make full use of the basic data to boost rural development more effectively.
Commuters in Beijing asked to give up bus seats
Beijing authorities yesterday launched "Seat-giving Day" to encourage people on public transport to give up their seats to those in greater need, in the latest bid to improve civic-consciousness ahead of the Olympics.
New bins for sorting waste in Shanghai
Residents in Shanghai were given new garbage bins yesterday to help them reduce waste and recycle more.
Favoring foreign products 'improper'
It was "improper" to consider only foreign brands when calling for public tenders in governmental procurements, Guangzhou's vice-mayor said yesterday.
Rural facilities improved: Survey
Rural infrastructure and social services have improved remarkably in recent years, thanks to government efforts to boost the countryside, the nation's latest agriculture census has revealed.
Beijing becomes China's largest advertising market
Beijing is China's largest advertising market with revenues of 31.3 billion yuan (US$4.4 billion) last year, up 21 percent from 2006.
Paraglider dies after East China Sea plunge
A man piloting a powered paraglider died on Thursday afternoon after his aircraft suffered a mid-air breakdown and plunged in the East China Sea off Fujian Province.
Unprecedented press access to CPPCC
The media will get an unprecedented level of access to all 56 panel discussions of the first plenary session of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) next month, Hong Kong-based newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported Thursday.
Premier's visit brings hope to Henan AIDS-hit villages
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to several AIDS-hit villages in Shangcai County in the central Henan Province in November has left villagers with great hope of leading a better life.
Direct farm subsidies to help post-disaster reconstruction
China is allocating billions of farm subsidies in advance to support spring ploughing as part of its post-disaster reconstruction efforts, Xinhua learnt from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Thursday.
Donations for snow-hit areas reach 1.53 bln yuan
Public donations for China's snow-hit areas have reached 1.53 billion yuan (US$214 million), the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on Thursday.
Coast guards to get 7 law-enforcing vessels
China will build and deploy seven law-enforcing vessels for its coast guard operations in its territorial waters and exclusive economic zones in the coming three years.
Lantern Festival embraced with joys after snow disaster
Chinese have celebrated the Lantern Festival, the formal end to the lunar new year festivities, Thursday across the country with joys after the worst snow disaster in 50 years.
ATM 'thief' back in court
A court in south China on Friday began a rehearing of the case of a 24-year-old migrant worker who was jailed for life last year for taking cash from a malfunctioning automatic teller machine.
US$5.3 billion allocated to improve water infrastructures
China has allocated 38 billion yuan (US$5.3 billion) for water infrastructure this year, an increase of 11.8 percent on the financial input for 2007, Chen Lei, Water Resources minister said on Thursday.
Police seize 7 illegal DVD production lines
Chinese police confiscated seven illegal production lines of DVDs recently in three separate cases in south China, the national office for crackdown on pornographic and illegal publications said on Thursday.
China
Deaths rise to 5 in village blaze
FIVE people have been confirmed dead in a village fire on Friday in Sanjiang County in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rescuers said yesterday.
A firefighting official said 3,276 villagers were now homeless after...
Military forum
AN international military forum on peace and development to mark the 60th founding anniversary of the People's Liberation Army air force closed yesterday with consensus on increased cooperation in tackling airspace...
'Golden Locks' adapted into opera
TAIWAN Peking opera "A Tale of Golden Locks" will be staged at the National Center for the Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing on November 21.
The opera is based on a novel by author Eileen Chang and was created...
Foggy havoc on highways
MAJOR highways to Beijing were closed as the capital, neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality were shrouded in dense fog yesterday.
The average visibility in Beijing was less than 500 meters yesterday...
Local demand the key
CHINA should look for economic growth in the next year by boosting domestic demand instead of waiting for a recovery in the global economy, a senior economist said yesterday.
"The world's economy is recovering...
Beijing plans to expand swine flu inoculations
BEIJING is leading the country in expanding its swine flu inoculation program to cover all people with permanent residency in the capital.
The roll-out will begin on November 16.
The program will continue...
5 die in village fire in Guangxi, 196 houses burnt down
FIVE people have been confirmed dead in a village fire yesterday in Sanjiang County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, rescuers said today.
A fire-fighting official said 3,276 villagers have fallen...
Heavy fog shrouds Beijing and neighboring regions
MAJOR highways to Beijing have been closed as the capital and neighboring Hebei Province and Tianjin Municipality were shrouded in dense fog today.
The average visibility in Beijing was less than 500 meters this...
Shanghai Daily: National
Shanghai Daily National
New Friction and Vast Agenda Await Obama on China Trip
Ian Johnson of the Wall Street Journal reports on the state of U.S.-China relations on the eve of Obama's first trip to China:
A decade ago, most issues discussed at China-U.S. summits were limited to three issues: human rights, nuclear nonproliferation and trade. Now, the list of topics has grown to ...
Photo: Pagoda Chinese Restaurant
Pagoda Chinese Restaurant, in Zanzibar, via yewco.
‘Rape on a Whim’? New Catchphrase Raises Ire
In a court ruling by Nanxun Court in Huzhou City, Zhejiang province, a rape committed by two police associates has been ruled as 临时性的即意犯罪, or an unpremeditated crime, also translated as "temporary crime on a whim" by Jessie of chinaSMACK.
ChinaHush provides background and details on the incident. Key's translated ...
Three Teens Drowned In Jingzhou
Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth posts "three reports which reflect the diversity of information sources in China: (1) the Xinhua report which paid tribute to the three heroes; (2) an in-depth investigative report by Southern Weekend; (3) an Internet forum post from a local resident" on the story of three teenagers ...
How Volleyball and Pop Have Shaken China’s Idea of Race
What does it mean to be Chinese? Isabel Hilton writes on how national volleyball player Ding Hui and reality show contestant Lou Jing -- both children of Chinese mothers and black fathers -- have sparked debates over the question of race. Via the Guardian:
Earlier this year, China picked Ding Hui, ...
China’s Africa Investments Under Harsh Spotlight
Premier Wen Jiabao is currently in Egypt for a China-Africa forum that will run from November 6-8. With continued China-Africa cooperation plans at the focus of forum talks, many are bringing the topic of China-Africa trade and investments under greater scrutiny. From Joelle Garrus for AFP:
From oil in Sudan, Angola ...
China Hosts Anti-Piracy Meeting
China is holding a 2-day international forum to coordinate efforts against piracy off the African coast. From China Daily:
Several navies have been in the Gulf of Aden since 2008 in response to the hijacking of vessels by Somali pirates, who seize ships and crews in the hope of securing a ...
Photo: Wuhan Street Seller
Wuhan street seller, via an_diabhal_glas.
Killed by the Kindness of a Chinese Propaganda Department
For the Telegraph, Peter Foster writes about being wined and dined by local propaganda officials who interceded as he was interviewing farmers in Henan who were preparing to be relocated off their land to make way for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project:
Armed with three bottles of ‘bai jiu’ in gleaming ...
More Official Thoughts on Re-branding Propaganda
David Bandurski of China Media Project translates "Employing Innovation to Raise the Level of Public Opinion Channeling in Television" by Ma Laishun, vice-chairman at Hebei Television and head of the station’s News Center. A portion of David Bandurski's introductory remarks to Ma's article:
“Public opinion channeling” seems to encompass an ambitious ...
CFR: The United States in the New Asia
In preparation for President Obama's trip to the region, the Council on Foreign Relations has published a new report titled, "The United States in the New Asia":
As Asia’s economic and strategic weight has grown, Asians have sought to build multilateral frameworks capable of effectively channeling the region’s energies. But for ...
Farmers Selling Blood to Make Ends Meet
In Hubei's Yunxian County, some come to sell their blood plasma -- 600 cc for 168 yuan -- to make ends meet. From China Youth Daily [CN], excerpted and translated by CDT:
The white boat with 35 passengers measures about 5 meters long, and is headed for Shiyan metropolitan area's Yunxian ...
Western Fenqing?
ChinaGeeks has a post responding to a piece by Bob Page of Mercury Brief, which in turn is responding to the widely-cited talk by Kaiser Kuo at the University of Nebraska called "Shouting Across the Chasm: Chinese and American Netizens Clash in Cyberspace." Kuo's talk can be watched here:
At the ...
China Bans Physical Punishment for Internet Addicts
The Chinese government has banned the use of any physical punishment in Chinese internet addiction clinics:
Many of the camps are imbued with a military atmosphere. Patients are forced to replace hours in front of the computer with arduous physical drills or even more extreme "treatments".
"When intervening to prevent improper use ...
Chinese Activist Risks Jail with Letter to Obama
Released dissident Yang Zili has written a letter to US president Obama asking for his assistance in gaining medical parole for two other prisoners:
Yang's appeal, made in an open letter, could result in him being re-arrested because the terms of his parole ban him from political activities. But Yang said he ...
The Petitioning Experience of a Letters and Visits Director
Wu Zongming, former director of the Letters and Visits office in Guiping of Guangxi Province, found himself resorting to petitioning channels when a project to create a shipping route went underway in 2007, forcing him and others to relocate. Excerpted from Xiaokang Magazine (《小康》杂志), and translated by CDT:
It was ...
Photo: A traditional cave dwelling in Luoyang, Shaanxi, by Kevin Poh
A traditional cave dwelling in Luoyang, Shaanxi, by Kevin Poh
Forbes: China’s 400 Richest
Forbes has published its latest list of China's 400 richest people:
A quick comparison of our new Forbes China Rich List with that of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, published in September, appears to tell a familiar story. China's 400 Richest are worth a record $314 billion, but that ...
TimeOut New York: Carsick Cars + P.K.14
With several Beijing bands on the Maybe Mars label about to begin a U.S. tour, the Chinese punk scene is getting a lot of press. Time Out New York tells New Yorkers what to expect when PK14 and Carsick Cars play in Brooklyn tomorrow:
While this is not the first time ...
Bloggers Put China’s Pollution on the Map
Ellen Zhu at the Wall Street Journal's China Real Time Report writes about a collaborative Google Maps project to document China's heavily polluted areas:
“My goal is to get as many people working on the map as possible so that everybody can help to expose the pollution problem,” said Guo Baofeng, ...
China Digital Times (CDT)
Covering China From Cyberspace
China Business Myths
© Chi King
Forbes ran an interesting piece on China this week. It looked at three myths that are widely believed to be true, but are, well, not quite as simple as people (and the media) tend to think...
Myth number one: China's economy is led by exports. Myth number two: China's supply of cheap labor is (almost) endless. Myth number three: Your connections are everything.
The examination of the number one myth is revealing (if you haven't been keeping up with China). While a few years ...
Will an Innovation Shortage End China's Economic Growth?
© jiazi
BusinessWeek ran a couple of articles this week (here and here) on China's economic growth and the expansion of the China economy into "sophisticated industries." Can the growth rate of 8% continue? There are skeptics.
China has moved into auto and airplane manufacturing, solar power, and silicon chips (to name of few of the so called sophisticated industries). But much of the 8% growth rate is driven by infrastructure projects designed to stimulate the economy. Many analysts doubt that China can maintain the growth rate ...
Seen that? - Intel Capital Makes Swift Investments Post-Alibaba Deal
Intel Capital Makes Swift Investments Post-Alibaba Deal at China Venture News Intel Corporation's $200 million China Technology Fund has wasted little time making an undisclosed investment in three companies. Although industry analysts speculate that the investments were modest, the timing from a fund only established two months ago does reinforce Intel's support for ...
China's Entrepreneur Confidence Index is Up
© Stephen_AU
China has a entrepreneur confidence index - a scale of 0 to 200. And for the third quater of the year it's up almost 10 points, to 120.1 according to China CSR.The index, which measures the understanding, views, and projections of entrepreneurs, ranges from zero to 200. When it is higher than 100, it indicates optimism for an economic boom. But when it is lower than 100, it means there is an expectation of economic downturn.Computer services and software indexed at 150.5, making ...
China's Problems with the Falling Dollar are its Own Fault
© somegeekintn
Peter Morici has an interesting analysis of the current situation with the US dollar and China's yuan.
As the dollar falls against the euro, yen and other major currencies, China and other emerging economic powers holding lots of dollars and U.S. securities are crying foul, and for an end to the dollar’s central status in global commerce.
If they are truly disgusted, they should look to themselves for answers.Morici goes on to trace events from the 1970's when Nixon ended fixed gold prices and the Bretton ...
Seen that? - Saif Partners Picks China TV Home-Shopping Network as the Next Big IPO
Saif Partners Picks China TV Home-Shopping Network as the Next Big IPO at China Venture News Daniel Yang, a partner of SAIF Partners, the most active venture capital firm in China in 2004, displays only confidence about the investment climate in the country. ...
China's Outbound Investment Surpases Inbound Investment
For the first time, China is sending more investment out of the country to the rest of the world than it is taking in from foreign investors, according to Seeking Alpha.According to Peoples' Daily, this year China could invest 150 billion U.S. dollars overseas. This is three times more than last year's figure of US$52 billion. People's Daily also states that, China's role in the global economy will shift from "manufacturer" to "capital exporter."Will that change China's place in the world economy? A little...
© DavidDennisPhotos.com
Who Owns China's Export Sector?
Andrew Butter took a look recently at US ownership in China's export sector and concluded that blaming China for the trade deficit or for the value of the US dollar against the yuan is, well, circular.In 2007 about 25% of China's exports went to USA; which is about the ratio of FDI investment. I suspect that a large proportion of those exports were US Corporations, or companies de-facto controlled by US Corporations...Butter takes an interestnig look at free trade zones and US investment in China.
© ...
China's Investment-to-GDP Ratio
INn light of what I said yesterday about consumptionin China, I thought I would revisit another Seeling Alpha post from earlier this month - this one by David Hunkar.
So, if China's not a comsumer-oriented economy, what is it? The answer lies in its ratio of investment-to-GDP. China has the highest investment-to-GDP ratio in the developed world: over 40%. That's almost three times the rate of countries like the US, the UK and Germany. It's twice the rate of Japan.
China's problem is that its export-driven ...
China's Consumption Gap
Paul Kedrosky over at Seeking Alpha last week pointed out one of the primary obstacles China faces if it is to continue its transition to a Western-style consumer-oriented economy. China has a consumption gap...There is non-stop chatter about China's challenge in transitioning from being an investment-led economy to a consumer-driven one, and commensurate consequences for the global economy.The US consumes 71% of of it's GDP. South Africa 68% and the UK 67%. Russia 62% and Canada 60%. India 57%, Japan 55%, Thailand 54%, and South ...
China More Than Doubles Renewable Energy Goals
Renewable energy has become even more of an economic and policy focus for China according to VentureBeat.
VentureBeat says that China now has a goal of producing 15 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020.While 15 percent might not seem like a lot in California where the mandate is 33 percent of the state's total by 2020, the figure is pretty ambitious for a country with such a massive population and higher technological hurdles. In fact, 15 percent would be 13 times China's ...
Global Recovery
Is China leading a global recovery. BusinessWeek says that many international corporations seem to think so.That theme keeps cropping up in recent conversations with CEOs and financial executives. Among the voices extolling the strength of China are Alcoa (AA) CEO Klaus Kleinfeld, Freeport-McMoRan (FCX) CEO Richard Adkerson, CEO Donald Tang of Hong Kong-based Citic Securities International Partners, and Joe Meuse, president of financial consulting firm Belmont Partners.BusinessWeek quotes a number of CEOs on the issue. It's an interesting read...
© Bernt Rostad
Copper and Steel
Seeking alpha had a couple of interesting pieces earlier this month on how China is impacting two particular commodity markets - copper and steel.
Chna has come close to cornering the market on copper.Enticed by low prices, China stockpiled copper and other commodities and now controls the fate of copper prices and has the potential to move both futures markets and related exchange traded funds (ETFs).The article goes on to say that China has close to one month's worth of copper stockpiled - as measured in ...
Cars and the Coming Car Culture in China
Cars are giving a boost to the Chnese economy. Is that good? Opinions vary...
While U.S. car sales are down so much that GM and Chrysler have both been through Chapter 11, China's car sales for June of this year are up 48% over last year. That's not a typo. Stan Abrams at China Hearsay reflects on the issue a little and points out that China is only now developing a car culture, and that most people don't really need a car. They just want one. ...
Coming Soon: The NEW Guangzhou
BusinessWeek ran a piece earlier this month in which Guangzhou Party Secretary Zhu Xiaodan is quoted on the city's plans to clean up the Pearl River, restore wetlands and forests, and foster home-grown brands. It was an interesting piece.According to article:Guangzhou will eschew heavy manufacturing and encourage industries that rely more on innovation than investment, such as biomedical and electronics, as well as service-sector industries such as finance, technology, and tourism. "We'll change 'Made in Guangzhou' to 'Created in Guangzhou,' " Zhu asserts. "We need ...
Baidu Gives e-Commerce a Boost
China search engine Baidu is offering to help Japanese companies support e-commerce inside China, according to Asiajin. Baidu has had a Japanese version of it's search engine since 2007.
Asiajin sees the move as part of an effort to help Baidu compete in Japan with Yahoo and Google.By the end of this month, Japanese companies will be offered a range of services, i.e. setting up China-friendly-websites or efficient advertising. Chinese customers will be able to pay via credit card or with Alipay, a payment system offered ...
China Restricts Virtual Currencies
A number of news sources (Metaverse Journal, CNN, Venturebeat) are covering new restrictions on virtual currencies in China.
China's Ministry of Commerce has put an end to the exchange of virtual currencies for real money in China.
The virtual world Second Life is the most well known of the virtual economies. But many others exist. Second Life has a virtual currency called Linden Dollars. Linden Dollars can be earned for jobs, goods, and services in Second Life and exchanged for U.S. Dollars at a rate (at the ...
July 8: China Cleantech Business Forum
© star5112
2Point6Billion (a blog that looks at economic issues in China and India) has a write up online on the upcoming China Cleantech Business Forum.
The July 8th forum will be Asia's first cleantech business conference.
Cleantech is a growing industry focus for venture capital and development funds:Despite the current credit crisis, overall fundraising for cleantech has remained steady in 2008, with 29 funds raising a total of US$6 billion worldwide.
The majority of these cleantech projects have gone to venture capitalists funds with infrastructure funds also ...
NetworkingForPros.com Puts You on the Web
© Dmitry Baranovskiy
I've been contributing over the last few months to the content of a vibrant and growing site that points toward the future of the Internet and has profound potential for users interested in finding potential partners in other countries. The site is NetworkingForPros.com.
When I look across the web at the moment, it's clear that the Internet of yesterday (static pages where you could find information and news) has been replaced by an interactive, social Internet that is about people instead of facts and ...
Employee Compensation Case Law
China Law Blog had a case study (of sorts) this past week on employee compensation. The article looked at an employee claim for pregnancy leave that was filed after they'd been laid off.
The situation was complicated by the fact that the employee did not have a written contract and that the business site in SHENZHEN did not have an employee manual. The story is a classic example of the pitfalls of dealing with China's employment laws.
© lylevincent
Undervalued or Not, the Yuan is Not Likely to Gain Much
I came across a couple of articles recently the seemed to complement each other on the relative value of the U.S. dollar and the China's Yuan Renminbi.
Nikhil Raheja has an excellent explanation of the theory behind exchange rate.The currency exchange rates of every country in the world are based on a concept called the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). This concept says that a currency's value is based upon the total number of products that can be bought with a single unit of that currency. ...
Three US IPO Listings for Chinese Companies
Seeking Alpha has an informative write up online at the moment for three Chinese companies that recently released IPOs on the US market.
Duoyuan Global Water Inc. listed on the NYSE. The company describes itself as "a leading China-based domestic water treatment equipment supplier." Chemspec International also listed on the NYSE. The company is the largest manufacturer of fluorinated specialty chemicals in China, with about a 25% market share.
Skystar Bio-Pharmaceutical Company recently listed an IPO on the NASDAQ. Skystar is a China-based developer and distributor ...
Recession Testing China's Business Laws
BusinessWeek had a piece this week on how China's business laws are coping with business failures as the recession progresses. In the case of very large companies, China's bankruptcy laws are having some impact and preventing complete chaos from taking hold.
With smaller businesses the story's a little different. Doors close and owners just seem to disappear into the night. The mob takes over for a while. The the police come run the mob off. At least that's what BusinessWeek is saying...
© gruntzooki
Floating the Yuan: Be Careful What You Wish For
Mark Sunshine had an interesting piece at Seeking alpha last week. He says that if the Chinese let the yuan float freely, there's a good chance it would fall in value. And that would make Chinese goods cheaper.
The value of the yuan became more of an issue a few weeks ago with the confirmation to Tim Geithner as the Secretary of the Treasury.
Sunshine rightly points out that Chinese goods are cheap for a lot of reasons - not just because of currency manipulation. Then ...
Geithner on Currency Manipulation, and China's Reaction...
China is manipulating the value of their currency, the yuan renminbi. At least that's what Obama's new Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner says.
The statement came as part of his 102-page response to questions from the Senate Finance Committee - part of the confirmation process in which the Senate approved him for the job.
Naturally, the Chinese government sees things differently, and doesn't mind saying so. From the Washington PostSu Ning, vice governor of the People's Bank of China, called Geithner's remarks misleading and "out of keeping ...
Giant Online Mall in the Works for China Market
Asiajin had an interesting story a couple of weeks ago about the online mall that 100 Japanese companies are setting up for shoppers in China.According to the Nikkei, major electronics retailer Yodobashi Camera, drugstore operator Matsumotokiyoshi, children's clothing retailer Narumiya and mail order company Cecile are among the candidates.Chinese shoppers will be able to pay with a China UnionPay card (there are about 1.8 billion of those in circulation) and they'll get their goods in about two days via China Post.
The new mall highlights the ...
One Key to Success: The Bi-Cultural Consultant
From a business perspective, the main barrier to success in China is culture. Cultural difference between a European, Australian or American businessman and his Chinese partner can lead to problems in communication, trust, and understanding each other's expectations. The solution? A bi-cultural consultant...
Do you really need a consultant? Consider this when you think about doing business in China:Many of its fundamental structures are very different and without the understanding of these differences, companies are only going to "stumble in the dark", not knowing how business ...
Morgan Stanley's Asia PE Chief Gets Axed
PE Hub is reporting that Jonathan Mandel, the managing director of Morgan Stanley's Hong Kong-based Asia Pacific private equity banking team, was "let go" as part of a round of layoffs announced last month.
According to PE HUb, "Mandel's fast departure from his new post underscores the brutal environment that private equity firms and their bankers face not just in Western countries, but Asia too."
While Mandal's job covered company investment in most of Asia, Japan was excluded from his portfolio.
Morgan Stanley's action was mirrored last ...
China Venture News
China Investment News
Compulsory Peking Opera course questioned
China's latest effort to promote traditional culture among its younger generation has raised controversy in a nation where diverse opinions and options are gaining a grudging respect.
Part 7: On Religion and Social Harmony
Part 6: On Religion and Science
Part 5: On Chinese and Western Cultures and Philosophy
Part 4: On Religious Beliefs in China
Part 3: On Religion and the Spirit
Foreword
I had never imagined that I would one day be the co-author of a book about a topic like the present one. Without the congenial discussion between Dr. Luis Palau and myself, there would not have been the proposal that we join hands to put out this book.
New dinosaur species identified in Zhejiang
Chinese and Japanese scientists have confirmed a dinosaur fossil unearthed in eastern China's Zhejiang Province in September was a new species of the animal.
Taiyuan celebrate Lantern Festival
Residents of Jinci Town in the northern Chinese city of Taiyuan perform traditional folk arts to celebrate the Lantern Festival, which falls on February 21 this year.
Pilot projects to teach kids Peking Opera
China's education department will start pilot projects to teach students in primary and secondary schools how to perform Peking Opera, one of the nation's unique cultural treasures.
Writers depict heros fighting snow disaster
Chinese poets and writers are producing new works depicting people who emerged as heroes fighting the snow and rain disaster that have affected many areas of the country since mid January.
Crossing the bridge of trumps and tricks
Bridge is an age-old game with new-found fans, including here in Shanghai where a dedicated bunch of players, keen to test their mental skills, gather each month to do battle.
The marks of a masterpiece
The local skill of making Lu'an inkpads has been listed as part of the nation's intangible cultural heritage.
Four city museums to offer free entry in March
Four museums and memorial sites in Shanghai will start a trial next month to offer free entry, Oriental Morning Post reported today.
Culture