China Digital Times

Film director Zhang Yimou was accused earlier this month of violating China’s one-child policy, reportedly fathering as many as seven children with four different women. In a New York Times op-ed, author Ma Jian explains how Zhang’s case has highlighted the uneven effects of China’s family planning laws:

The truth is: for the rich, the law is a paper tiger, easily circumvented by paying a “social compensation fee” — a fine of 3 to 10 times a household’s annual income, set by each province’s family planning bureau, or by traveling to Hong Kong, Singapore or even America to give birth.

For the poor, however, the policy is a flesh-and-blood tiger with claws and fangs. In the countryside, where the need for extra hands to help in the fields and the deeply entrenched patriarchal desire for a male heir have created strong resistance to population control measures, the tiger has been merciless.

[…] The public outrage voiced against Mr. Zhang during the last week plays into the Party’s hands. Instead of attacking the government’s barbaric policy, the people are being encouraged to criticize the rich for escaping its claws.

Ending this scourge is a moral imperative. The atrocities committed in the name of the one-child policy over the last three decades rank among the worst crimes against humanity of the last century. The stains it has left on China may never be erased. [Source]

At The Guardian (via CDT), Ma recently explained how family planning riots in Guangxi in 2007 inspired his latest novel, The Dark Road.

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Post tags: family planning, inequality, ma jian, one-child policy, social inequality, Zhang Yimou
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In their efforts to boost rankings and achieve world-class status, many Chinese universities have implemented hiring and publishing policies that risk undermining collegiality among faculty members. From John Anthony Pella Jr. and Li Wang from Zhejiang University in The Chronicle of Higher Education:

The high value placed on foreign degrees has shaken up the job market. It has become easier for foreign-trained Chinese scholars to return home and get jobs at prestigious universities; and non-Chinese academics have an even easier time. By contrast, the chance for a domestically trained scholar to work at a prestigious university is dwindling, even if they get their doctorate from one of China’s top institutions.

[...] As part of this push to become world-class, the universities and education officials are also reinforcing a “publish or perish” mentality. Chinese universities are attempting to improve their standing in global university rankings rapidly. To do so, they are trying to improve the research areas that the rankings rely on. For publishing, this means that articles in Thomson Citation Index-listed journals are encouraged above all else—in fact, no other international indexes are even considered or recognized, and such language is written into faculty contracts. In consequence, book publishing is considered unimportant and is even openly discouraged in faculty discussions.

There are various policies in place to persuade faculty to submit exclusively to such outlets, the most obvious being financial rewards for successful publication. Most universities will pay between 5,000 and 10,000 RMB (or 750 and 1,500 USD) per article. Importantly, only the first author or corresponding author gets these financial benefits, and this effectively persuades colleagues not to work together. [Source]

See also how China’s top institutions fare in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

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Post tags: academics, higher education, rankings, universities
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Singing

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Post tags: Robert Hughes
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A captive in Dongqiao, Fujian Province, May 11, 2013.

The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

Guangdong Propaganda Department: Do not report, republish, or comment on Gu Chujun’s May 22 news conference or related activities. (May 22, 2013)

广东省委宣传部：对顾雏军22日举行新闻发布会及相关类似活动，不报不评不转。

Gu Chujun, former CEO of Kelon Electrical Holding Group, was convicted of overstating profits and embezzling funds. He is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence which began in 2009.

Central Propaganda Department: Do not report or comment on the May 11 villagers’ attack on government workers in Dongqiao Township, Hui’an County, Fuzhou, Fujian Province. (May 22, 2013)

中宣部：福建泉州惠安县东桥镇5月11日村民围攻政府工作人员，不报不评。

At the beginning of the month, Dongqiao officials clashed with locals about plans to requisition land for an oil refinery. On May 11, villagers captured one of the town’s vice mayors and a riot police officer. See more photos from Dongqiao at CDT Chinese.

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

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Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, environmental protests, Fujian, Gu Chujun, Guangdong, Ministry of Truth, propaganda
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China, whose 2011 per capita carbon emissions rose to match those of the EU, has proposed to enact a nationwide cap on carbon emissions by 2016. The Independent reports:

The battle against global warming has received a transformational boost after China, the world’s biggest producer of carbon dioxide, proposed to set a cap on its greenhouse gas emissions for the first time.

Under the proposal China, which is responsible for a quarter of the world’s carbon emissions, would put a ceiling on greenhouse gas emissions from 2016, in a bid to curb what most scientists agree is the main cause of climate change.

It marks a dramatic change in China’s approach to climate change that experts say will make countries around the world more likely to agree to stringent cuts to their carbon emissions in a co-ordinated effort to tackle global warming.

[Source]

China now burns nearly as much coal as the rest of the world combined — one factor contributing to the record levels of PM2.5 recorded early this year in Beijing — and has been accused in the past of being uncooperative in the global fight against climate change. Amid the new leadership’s call for “ecological progress,” the Ministry of Finance hinted in February at the imminent imposition of an emission-curbing carbon tax, though the ministry later said that, due to economic concerns, the move would have to wait until after 2013. Details about another measure towards “ecological progress” were recently unveiled: the country’s first pilot carbon-trading program will launch next month in Shenzhen. From The Guardian:

The trading scheme will cover 638 companies responsible for 38% of the city’s total emissions, the Shenzhen branch of the powerful National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on Wednesday. The scheme will eventually expand to include transportation, manufacturing and construction companies.

Shenzhen is one of seven designated areas in which the central government plans to roll out experimental carbon trading programmes before 2014.

[...]Li Yan, Greenpeace east Asia’s climate and energy campaign manager, said that the pilot programmes will inform the central government on how to motivate local authorities to adopt low-carbon policies.

[Source]

In a report covering both the possible carbon cap and the new pilot program, Think Progress underlines the global and local impact of carbon emission in China, and notes what China’s progress in carbon regulation implies for the U.S., the world’s second top carbon dioxide emitter:

The possibility of a carbon cap in China has been hailed as “potentially transformative” in the fight against climate change, as other major emitters such as the U.S. have historically cited China’s inaction on climate change as reason to avoid implementing meaningful greenhouse gas regulations. Previously, China has shied away from cuts in emissions, saying its main priority was the growth of its economy. In November 2012, the state-owned Xinhua quoted Xie Zhenhua, China’s chief negotiator to the UN climate change talks, as saying it was “unfair and unreasonable to hold China to absolute cuts in emissions at the present stage, when its per capita GDP stands at just 5,000 U.S. dollars.”

But now, China’s advancements in carbon regulation mean the U.S.’s strategy of waiting for China to act on climate change before it does is becoming less and less credible. China has already pledged to cut its carbon intensity, or emissions per unit of GDP, by 17 percent between 2011 and 2015 and 40 to 45 percent by 2020, compared to 2005 levels. In February, the countryannounced it would be implementing a carbon tax, but it later clarified that it would wait until 2013 is over to introduce the program. And the country has invested substantially in renewable energy, spending $65 billion on clean energy projects in 2012, nearly twice as much as the U.S.’s $35.6 billion.

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Post tags: air pollution, carbon cap-and-trade, carbon tax, emissions standards, environment, greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, sustainable development
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The story below is translated from a Yanzhao Metropolis Daily report. It is currently unavailable on the newspaper’s website.

Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Says He Is a “Key Person,” Refused Admittance to Hotel

Pu Zhiqiang’s identification information as it appeared on a terminal at the Rui’an Hotel in Beijing. (Pu Zhiqiang/Weibo)

Last night, prominent lawyer Pu Zhiqiang posted on Weibo about a “rather shocking” event–he has been classified as a “key person” and barred entrance to a hotel in Beijing. The hotel states that it is simply following procedures for verifying the information on guests’ identification cards.

“I have just learned that, as a key person, I can’t enter this hotel. It feels very strange to know I’ve been labelled like this.” At 9 p.m. last night, Mr. Pu wrote a weibo saying that he had been going to the Rui’an Hotel on Zhengyi Road, Beijing to see a friend visiting from out of town. His friend had also brought tea for Mr. Pu. What is unusual is that Mr. Pu was stopped by public security at the door, where they checked his identification card.

Mr. Pu revealed that he gave his card to the security guards, who swiped it at a terminal to check his information. They told him that he is a “key person” and that he would be refused entrance to the hotel.

Outside the Rui’an Hotel. (Pu Zhiqiang/Weibo)

Mr. Pu took a photo of the information about him  displayed on the terminal screen, explaining that he is not a petitioner. The security guards were courteous, saying they understood he had not come to petition, but Mr. Pu was still unable to go inside. There was no dispute between the two sides. Mr. Pu called his friend, who came outside to give him the tea.

Mr. Pu says that he has checked into hotels across the country and has never encountered this situation before. The reception manager at Rui’an stated last night that their “hotel is rather special,” as they do not receive foreigners or anyone with a criminal record. If someone’s identification card indicates that he is a key person, the staff can only decide whether or not to admit him based on the information available.

Radio France Internationale also reports on Pu’s encounter at the hotel [zh].

Via CDT Chinese.

Note: Ironically, zhengyi 正义 means “justice.” Back.

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Post tags: Beijing, pu zhiqiang, rights defense
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Yuan Huizhong. (Weibo)

The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

State Internet Information Office: Immediately delete contents which calls into question the appointment of the children of cadres to positions in local government, members of the so-called “governing second generation,” “governing third generation,” “red second generation, etc. (including news, blogs, forum posts, images, and video). Report on the progress of your work. (May 14, 2013)

网信办：立即清理质疑一些干部子女出任地方领导职务所谓“官二代”“官三代”“红二代”等信息（含新闻，博文，贴文，图片，视频等），并将简要工作情况上报。

This directive could be in response to a netizen backlash after the “rocket promotion” (火箭升迁) of Yuan Huizhong to the Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province chapter of the Communist Youth League. According to China Daily, Yuan only has three years of experience, but her father has a top appointment in the city. The directive seems preemptive of future controversies, however, as Yuan’s case is still visible on Weibo [zh]. Earlier this month, Deng Xiaoping’s grandson became a “sensitive” word on Weibo after becoming county head of Pingguo County, Guangxi Province.

The keywords “governing second generation” (官二代), “governing third generation” (官三代), and “red second generation” (红二代) are all searchable on Weibo.

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

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Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Internet censorship, Jiangsu, Ministry of Truth, official corruption, propaganda, second-generation officials, Yangzhou
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The complex technical and legislative framework to restrict and monitor information in cyberspace has been in the works since the Internet arrived in China in 1994. The infamous system brings together an array of censorship methods, and is currently thought to be the most sophisticated censorship network in the world. The most notorious part of this complex system is known globally as the “Great Firewall of China,” and it is responsible for blocking access inside China to selected foreign websites. In a 2010 speech on Internet freedom, then U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned of a spreading “information curtain” in which “viral videos and blog posts are becoming the samizdat of our day,” hinting at the beginnings of a digital cold war. Clinton’s comments were quickly rebuffed by Beijing.

Efforts to strictly control communication in the digital age — what Global Voices co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon has called “networked authoritarianism” — have been assumed to influence the way that Chinese netizens interact with the Internet (a theory easily given weight by the emergence of subversive web phenomena such as e-gao). However, a new study by two graduate students at Northwestern University argues that cultural factors have more impact on web usage than does censorship. Below is the abstract for “How Does the Great Firewall of China Affect Online User Behavior,” by PhD candidates Harsh Taneja and Angela Xiao Wu:

Internet access blockage is widely understood to isolate Chinese Internet users and “balkanize”
the Internet. Drawing from the literature on global cultural consumption, we question this
assumption and argue that online user behavior is structured by cultural factors. We develop a
framework that integrates access blockage with other structural factors to explain web users’
choices. Analyzing online audience traffic among the 1000 most visited websites globally, we
find that websites cluster according to language and geography. Chinese websites constitute one
cluster, which resembles other such geo-linguistic clusters in terms of both its composition and
degree of isolation. Our study demonstrates that cultural proximity has a greater role than access blockage in shaping people’s web usage. It also calls for sociological investigation of the impact of Internet blockage.

[Source]

MIT Technology Review summarizes the new study’s findings and its methodology, before drawing attention to its faults and siding with the counter-argument:

[...]And herein lies the biggest problem with the study by Taneja and Xiao Wu—it fails to take proper account of the behaviour of Chinese-speaking people who are outside of the Great Firewall of China but able to access content within it. It is easy to imagine that this relatively small group acts as the glue that links the Chinese cluster to the rest of the world.

If that’s the case, then the cultural fault lines created by the Great Firewall are hidden in this data.

It may well be that cultural factors are an important influence on people’s surfing habits, possibly the most important influence. But the argument that censorship is somehow less significant because of this is insidious and dangerous. On this matter, Hillary Clinton was correct.

[Source]

Also see prior CDT coverage of Internet censorship and the Great Firewall, and The Economist’s in-depth special report “China’s Internet: A Giant Cage“.

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Post tags: academic resources, censorship, Great Firewall, Internet, Internet censorship, Internet culture
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North Korea has sent a high-level envoy to Beijing in an apparent effort to patch up tense relations as international pressure mounts over Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions. From the New York Times:

The envoy, Vice Marshal Choe Ryong-hae, who serves as director of the general political bureau of the North Korean People’s Army, met in Beijing with Wang Jiarui, the head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, said Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, in a report that gave no details of the talks.

His trip is North Korea’s first serious dabbling in diplomacy after months of bellicose pronouncements, including threats to launch nuclear strikes at the United States and its allies. It also comes as Japanese officials set off fears of a policy discord with allies by signaling a willingness to open a greater dialogue, including possible summit talks, with North Korea.

Marshal Choe, 63, is the first senior North Korean official to visit China since August and the first to go there in the capacity of special envoy. He is most likely the highest-profile envoy Mr. Kim could have chosen to visit China, having risen to the top military leadership under Mr. Kim, who has tried to consolidate his power at home while intensifying a standoff with Washington and its allies over his country’s nuclear and missile programs.

“The fact that Kim Jong-un sent a special envoy means that he has something quite urgent to discuss with China, and the fact that his special envoy was his top military officer suggests that China wants to talk about the North’s nuclear and missile programs,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a senior analyst at the Sejong Institute in South Korea. [Source]

Earlier this week, a group of Chinese fishermen were held for ransom in North Korea, further heightening tensions between the two countries, which have increased since Kim Jong-un took over power in 2011.The Guardian has more on the complicated relationship between the two neighbors:

China provides North Korea with the vast majority of its fuel and trade – reportedly accounting for almost nine-tenths of its imports and exports in 2011 – and its support has become even more important as Pyongyang’s relations with Seoul have deteriorated.

But it has shown increasing signs of frustration with the regime over its weapons programmes and angry rhetoric.

“Since North Korea had the third nuclear test [in February], the relationship between China and North Korea has been pretty tense. To ease the relationship, the visit is very normal and necessary. It helps to stop the bilateral relationship deteriorating,” said Cai Jian of the Centre for Korean Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai. “This visit shows China is also willing to improve the relationship with North Korea.”

China’s state news agency, Xinhua, said Choe, 63, met Wang Jiarui, head of the international department of the Communist party. It gave no further details. [Source]

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Post tags: diplomacy, North Korea nuclear, North Korea relations
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The Word of the Week comes from China Digital Space’s Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China’s online “resistance discourse,” used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

Jack Chan.

中国人需要管的。 (Zhōngguórén xūyào guǎn de.): “Chinese people need to be controlled.”

Infamous statement by movie star Jackie Chan during a discussion of censorship, movies, and society at the 2009 Boao Forum for Asia:

I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not. I’m really confused now. If you’re too free, you’re like the way Hong Kong is now. It’s very chaotic. Taiwan is also chaotic… I’m gradually beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled. If we’re not being controlled, we’ll just do what we want.

The comment set off a firestorm of discussion and criticism, especially in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Even mainland newspapers felt obliged to criticize Chan. The state-run People’s Daily accused Jackie Chan of wishing to deprive the Chinese of their extensive liberties [zh] and to subject them to an oppressive regime.

Chan’s statement may be translated more mildly as“Chinese people need to be managed.” But Chan has a history of making controversial political statements. He has previously claimed that Chinese culture may not be compatible with democracy, and called for restrictions on protests in Hong Kong. In early 2013, he claimed that America was the “most corrupt country in the world.”

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Post tags: Boao Forum, censorship, Jackie Chan, word of the week
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Prostrating at Jokhang Temple, Lhasa

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David Sheff speaks with Ai Weiwei in a wide-ranging interview for Playboy Magazine, in which the dissident artist discusses imprisonment, free speech and the internet, as well as his time spent in the United States:

PLAYBOY:As China has opened to the West, what’s the impact of a nondemocratic system in which the Communist Party selects its leaders from within?

AI: The way to survive in this party is to hide yourself or to become a person who obeys orders from above. These are not people with new ideas who are bold. One generation chooses the next, and one is worse than the former. It’s like inbreeding. After so many generations, it becomes weaker and weaker. You can see in the first generation— Chairman Mao’s generation, Castro’s generation—the first revolutionaries are strong characters, maybe crazy but a bit romantic. Idealistic. Now you see nothing. They cannot even remember what
64 their ancestors said.

PLAYBOY:Along with your Twitter messages, is your art largely a result of frustration with the current political system?

AI: I’m a person who likes to make an argument rather than just give emotion or expression a form and shape in art. I became an artist only because I was oppressed by society. I was born into a very political society. When I was a child, my father told me, as a joke, “You can be a politician.” I was 10 years old. I didn’t understand it, because I already knew that politicians were the enemy, the ones who crushed him. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. But now I understand. I can be political. I can say something even though we grew up without true education, memorizing Chairman Mao’s slogans. I memorized hundreds of them. I can still sing his songs, recite his poetry. Every morning at school we stood in front of his image, memorizing one of his sentences telling what we should do today to make ourselves a better person.

[Source]

Ai also discusses his venture into the medium of rock and roll, calling heavy metal music “poetry within a storm.” This morning, he posted a new heavy metal music video to his website in which he recreates scenes of his 2011 detention:

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Source]

Ai told The New York Times that he made the video and related music album because he “wanted to do something impossible:”

“It’s about the whole condition,” he said in an interview at his studio last week after showing final cuts of the video to a reporter and a photographer. “It’s not really about me. I think it’s about how the power of the state tries to manage and maintain this kind of control.”

Mr. Ai wrote the lyrics in one morning. He asked a friend, the rocker and contemporary artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, to handle the music. Six songs are expected to be released together in an album called “The Divine Comedy” on June 22, the second anniversary of Mr. Ai’s exit from detention. The video was shot by the cinematographer Christopher Doyle, an Australian resident of Hong Kong who is best known for his work with Wong Kar-wai, a director of highly stylized films, and Zhang Yimou, who has in recent years been a favorite of the Communist Party.

Near his studio Mr. Ai has created a full-scale model of the austere room in which he was kept for much of his time in detention. He said the actual prison was in western Beijing and was used to house prominent detainees.

[Source]

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Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei detention, Beijing, detention, dissidents, music
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The White House announced Monday that U.S. President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in California next month for the first time since Xi’s promotion as China’s new leader, according to The New York Times:

Mr. Obama and Mr. Xi will meet on June 7 and 8 at Sunnylands, the Walter and Leonore Annenberg estate in Southern California, the White House said. Mr. Obama already had travel scheduled on the West Coast at that time, officials said, so they decided that Sunnylands, a less formal setting, would provide a better environment for the two men to get to know each other. To prepare for the meeting, Thomas E. Donilon, the president’s national security adviser, will travel to Beijing from May 26 to 28.

“The U.S.-China agenda is big and complex, and we have a lot of issues to discuss and work though,” said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for the White House. “As we have said before, the relationship has elements of cooperation and elements of competition. We have no illusions about this. Our approach to China seeks to expand the areas of cooperation in managing regional and global challenges, and we seek to manage our differences in a way that prevents disruptive and unhealthy competition from undermining our interests and those of our allies in Asia.”

[Source]

The two leaders will attempt to “establish common ground after an awkward three-year period which has demonstrated many of their competing interests,” write Geoff Dyer and Victor Mallet of The Financial Times. The agenda will likely include North Korea, cyber security, the ongoing dispute in the South and East China Seas, as well as a range of economic issues, according to The Los Angeles Times.

In Beijing, Reuters reports that a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said China is willing to put its best foot forward to bolster ties with the United States:

“Of course, some differences exist between China and the United States, which require proper and active management by both sides,” Hong said. “This year, Sino-U.S. relations have got off to a good start and are facing an important opportunity for development.”

Hong said the two leaders would have “comprehensive and in-depth discussions” on a range of issues.

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Post tags: ', Barack Obama, cybersecurity, east china sea, North Korea, South China Sea, U.S. relations, Xi Jinping
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The recent death of a graduate student at China’s prestigious Fudan University, allegedly poisoned by a jealous roommate, evoked memories of the 1995 Zhu Ling case, reignited online fury that the case remains unsolved, and prompted 146,779 (as of the time of this posting) people to sign a petition launched on Whitehouse.gov for U.S. authorities to deport Zhu’s former roommate and poisoning suspect, who fled to the States in 1997. In an incredibly informative article for the Daily Dot, Kevin Morris describes the case at length. His piece shows how the Zhu Ling story represents the Internet revolution to date, and how her case prompted an early (and ongoing) use of China’s “human flesh search engine“:

In a grainy, black-and-white video of her final performance, Zhu Ling sweeps across the stage in a black skirt and white blouse before taking a seat behind a guqin, the six-stringed Chinese zither. She’s been feeling sick recently, and you can tell she’s a little nervous. But her fingers are precise. They pluck out a cautious melody.

Zhu has no idea she’s been poisoned.

A heavy metal is coursing through her body, brutalizing her neurological system. By the time the rare element is finally diagnosed and purged, Zhu will be physically ruined, her brilliant mind permanently damaged, her mental capacities reduced to that of a 6-year-old. She will forever be trapped in 1995, believing she’s a student at China’s most prestigious technical university.

She will miss everything that happens next.

Zhu’s story has straddled and defined two ends of the Internet revolution, connecting two decades, two continents, and two generations. She was probably the first person whose life was saved thanks to crowdsourced medical advice.

Nearly two decades later, her case has become the subject of what may be the largest amateur online manhunt in history, as millions of strangers in two countries unite on message boards and social media to scour the world for the only suspect in her poisoning, a woman barely seen or heard from since 1995—her college roommate.

It all began with an SOS made of ones and zeroes.[...]

[Source]

Click through to read Kevin Morris’ captivating narration of the Zhu Ling story in its entirety.

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Post tags: human flesh search engines, Internet, weibo, Zhu Ling
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In 2011, Guo Meimei scandalized the name of the Red Cross Society of China at a time when many were already suspicious about the humanitarian NGO’s management of funds. After the devastating 6.6Mw earthquake hit Sichuan province last month, lingering distrust in and anger towards the Red Cross came to light. When a discrepancy between the Red Cross’ recent donation figures and those on file at the Ministry of Civil Affairs was revealed by Southern Metropolis Daily last week, public outrage towards the Red Cross flared once again. The Global Times reports:

The public have questioned contradictory figures released for Lushan earthquake donations by the Red Cross Society of China (RCSC) and the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

The ministry released figures for the amount of donations which were lower than those of the Red Cross.

[...]The ministry announced Friday that as of May 10, the RCSC reported cash and material donations of 134.51 million yuan ($21.9 million), and the Red Cross Foundation, a separate entity administered by RCSC had received 24.3 million yuan. These figures contradicted the one posted on the RCSC’s Sina Weibo account on May 10, which said 159.27 million yuan had been collected.

The RCSC Saturday clarified the discrepancy by saying that the ministry’s release did not include the donations received by the foundation, while the RCSC’s figures did.

[Source]

The South China Morning Post reports that, despite a Ministry of Civil Affairs statement explaining the inconsistency, this may have further damaged the already tarnished public image of the Red Cross Society of China:

But the damage may already be done. “You can believe what they say or not, I certainly don’t,” a commenter posted online. “You can donate or not, I certainly won’t.”

The questions raised had hit a nerve as the charity is still reeling from a damaged reputation after the Guo Meimei scandal in 2011, in which a young woman who claimed to work for the Red Cross flaunted her extraordinary wealth.

Ever since, the Chinese Red Cross has struggled to collect donations. The ministry’s data shows that other charities have managed to collect several times as much as the country’s flagship charity.

[Source]

Also see one Chinese web-user’s Red Cross-inspired poem, translated by CDT.

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Post tags: 2013 Sichuan earthquake, charity, disaster relief, donations, guo meimei, NGOs, Red Cross, scandals
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Cyril Payen, a correspondent for France 24, got rare access to Tibet with a seven-day visa. He interviews activists and shows footage of the severe security presence in Lhasa, as well as the construction around the sacred Jokhang Temple. The report also includes an interview with Human Rights Watch’s Nicholas Bequelin:

Tibet has been off-limits to journalists since the Chinese government brutally suppressed riots in the region five years ago. France 24′s regional correspondent Cyril Payen managed to get a seven-day visa to enter the region. What he saw lends weight to the complaints of the Dalai Lama and human rights organisations, who say Tibetan culture is being erased.
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Post tags: lhasa, Tibet, Tibet development, tibet politics, Tibetan culture
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On Saturday and after much public outcry, food safety authorities in the southern province of Guangzhou released the names of rice producers whose products were found to contain cadmium, a toxic heavy metal. The Global Times reports:

The move by the Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration came after public demand for the information. Of 18 batches of rice tested during random quarterly checks, eight were found to contain excessive amounts of the heavy metal. The metal is known as a strong carcinogen, and can cause pathological changes in the kidneys and other organs.

The names of the producers of the eight substandard batches were released late Saturday. Six are in Hunan Province, while two others are in Dongguan.

However, an administration press officer told China National Radio on Saturday that the range of tested products was narrow, so the results do not represent the overall situation in Guangzhou.

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Initially, food safety authorities withheld the brand names and locations where the tainted rice was produced. After a barrage of netizen pressure, that information was made public, along with information as to what establishments were found to have the toxic product. From the South China Morning Post:

These [restaurants and cafeterias] included the Guangzhou Taiyang Seafood Restaurant in Liwan district, the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, the Yannanfei Restaurant in Haizhu district and the Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering.

[...]The incident, the latest in a seemingly endless series of food scandals, prompted a nationwide outcry over food safety and the perceived lack of transparency of the government’s handling of the issue on Friday.

[...]More than 100,000 internet users posted comments on major internet portals such as Sina and Soho on Friday urging the government to name the brands involved.

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In a blogpost deeming “cadmium rice” China’s latest food scandal, the New York Times’ Didi Kirsten Tatlow reports further on netizen reactions to initial state-media reports on this recent cadmium scare, and on the health effects of cadmium exposure:

Xinhua offered this practical, if short-term, advice, as did People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece: “Experts recommend that people should not consume food and drink from one particular region for long, instead they should diversify to lower the risk.”

That prompted some hilarity online, with netizens marveling that the party newspaper would offer such advice. “That’ll ensure that everyone gets their share of cadmium,” remarked someone called Ning Fushen, in a post on Sina Weibo.

[...]Cadmium, a known carcinogen, builds up in the body and damages the kidneys and lungs and can cause bone disease. Ingestion via food is the main source for nonsmokers, while smokers’ intake may be twice that of nonsmokers, according to the Web site www.cadmium.org.

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Amid this food safety probe and the bruised confidence of Chinese consumers, Bloomberg reports that sales of Hunan-produced rice are plummeting as many increasingly look to imports:

Rice traders in Hunan reported sales dropping by more than half from a year ago since media reports of the pollutant in began appearing, Cngrain.com said on its website. The researcher, which is owned by China Grain Reserves Corp., a custodian of government food reserves, didn’t provide figures for the drop in sales.

The Nanfang Daily first reported in February that rice from Hunan sold in southern Guangdong province contained excessive levels of toxic metal and the Guangzhou Food and Drug Administration reignited concerns with reports on its website last week. It is a blow to farmers in the region because sales of indica rice, a long-grain variety consumed in southern China and used for milling and brewing, were already being hurt by low-cost imports, Zhang Zhixian, analyst of Cngrain.com, said by phone from Zhengzhou in central China.

Consumers in some areas may become more willing to buy imported rice, said Li Qiang, chairman at Shanghai JC Intelligence Co. China’s quota system for imports will limit any increase, he said.

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Contaminated rice is not a new problem in China, and is one of many food products to be the at the center of safety scandals. The Chinese government, often criticized for lacking or laxly enforcing public health regulations, has recently launched a crackdown on “meat-related crimes.” In the private sector, moves are being made to consolidate quality control in the dairy industry, a field long riddled by food safety scandals.

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: agriculture, Cadmium Poisoning, food safety, food scandal, public health, soil contamination
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In an article published in state media, Shandong University professor Zhang Xi’en has warned that, at around 83 million members, the Chinese Communist Party may have grown unhealthily large. Zhang proposes that membership be streamlined to a sleek, lean 51 million. From Tom Phillips at The Telegraph:

Prof Zhang […] argued that the Soviet Union provided a "tragic lesson of what happens when a party grows too large with no strong mechanism for members to quit."

Party leaders needed to find a way to jettison corrupt and opportunistic members who had "damaged the party spirit", joining the party "not because they believed in Marxism-Leninism, but because they yearned for wealth and fortune."

"Only if the Communist Party keeps improving the quality and ability of its members can it ensure lasting rule," he argued. [Source]

Minnie Chan provided more details on Zhang’s diet plan at South China Morning Post:

Zhang suggested the party’s Central Committee classify members into three categories: honorary, probationary and formal members, with the honorary group being where most of the cuts should be made, because it was largely composed of "older, sick and retired members who are unable to toe the party line".

He estimated "honorary members" could make up 20 per cent of the members, and many of them "are forced to stay in the party in order to save face, or for other political reasons". He also suggested the party extend the probation period of some "unqualified members" who failed to pass internal assessments.

To prevent party cadres from using the "exit mechanism" to kick out political enemies, Zhang said the human rights of all party members should not be "violated", and members should not be "discriminated" against, after deciding to leave the party. He stressed that the party’s constitution allows members to "join and withdraw" freely. [Source]

The Party is already one man lighter: the expulsion of former Agricultural Bank of China vice president Yang Kun was announced on Monday.

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Post tags: CCP, Communist members, corruption, marxism, party discipline, Soviet Union
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With Li Keqiang traveling to India on his first foreign visit since taking office as China’s Prime Minister in March, The Diplomat’s Mu Chunshan explores what the early trips of China’s new leaders suggest about its foreign policy:

Many of these inaugural trips involve China’s neighbors: Russia, Southeast Asia, Mongolia, India and Pakistan. Beijing has always considered the nations that surround it as the starting point for its diplomacy, and repeatedly refers to a policy in pursuit of an “amicable, secure and prosperous neighborhood”. With China engaged in territorial disputes with several Southeast Asian countries and with India, these first visits can help not only to attenuate doubts and confusion, but also reflect China’s continued emphasis on peaceful coexistence. Meanwhile, relations with Russia, Pakistan and Mongolia are already relatively sound, and visits to these countries simply seek to strengthen traditional friendships.

Africa and South America are rapidly joining Asia as the “new engines” of international politics and economics. The fact that these regions have been top destinations for the Chinese leaderships shows that Beijing is looking to combine neighborhood stability with outreach to its fellow emerging nations.

If the media is right, and Li Keqiang’s first trip includes Switzerland and Germany, then this inaugural round of Chinese diplomacy can be considered balanced and comprehensive. In other words, focus on the emerging world without ignoring relations with developed countries.

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Post tags: foreign policy, India, Li Keqiang, mongolia, Pakistan, Russia, Xi Jinping
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China’s foreign ministry disclosed on Sunday that North Korea took over a Chinese fishing boat earlier this month and continues to hold its crew hostage, according to Chris Buckley of The New York Times:

The vessel’s owner, Yu Xuejun, called the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, on May 10 to seek help, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a brief statement issued through Sina Weibo, the country’s Twitter-like microblog service. Mr. Yu was not on the boat when it was seized.

“The embassy immediately made representations to the consular affairs bureau of the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, asking that North Korea release the vessel and the crew as soon as possible, and ensure the safety of the lives and property of the detained crew, as well as their legitimate rights,” the Chinese ministry statement said.

…

The Chinese media reports said the boat was seized on May 5, with 16 men onboard, and North Korean authorities demanded payment of 600,000 renminbi, equal to about $98,000, to release them and the vessel, apparently on the grounds that it was fishing in waters claimed by North Korea. The deadline for payment was Sunday, The Beijing Times newspaper said.

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China’s state-run Global Times reported on Monday that those responsible were “highly likely from the North Korean army,” with one expert speculating that North Korea may be retaliating for sanctions imposed by the United Nations in March after the rogue state’s third nuclear test. But the Guardian’s Tania Branigan speculates that local North Korean forces took on the heist to make money. The boat’s owner received a call from North Korea claiming that his boat had entered North Korean waters, she reports, though he insists the boat had not left Chinese territory:

“This is not the first time it has happened and it won’t be the last,” said Cheng Xiaohe, an expert on Sino-North Korean relations at Renmin University.

North Korean forces and Chinese fishermen often played a cat-and-mouse game, with incursions over the line by both sides, he said. Other cases had not become public because boat owners simply paid up but this time the ransom appeared to be much higher than usual.

“This issue will complicate an already troubled relationship between the two countries but I don’t think the impact will be significant or lasting. I think with the Chinese government intervention it will be settled quickly,” Cheng said.

But he added: “The Chinese side needs to rein in fishermen to make sure they stay in Chinese waters and the DPRK also needs to impose discipline on local military forces.”

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For Foreign Policy, Isaac Stone Fish doubts that the kidnappers acted with the full backing of the North Korean military command:

But if the “pirates” were actually members of the North Korean military acting in concert with Pyongyang, why the laughably small ransom? Yu told a Chinese journalist that he can’t pay the “sky-high price” of $100,000 — that may be true, but the sticker price for international incidents is usually higher than that of a luxury car. (By comparison, in 2010, the average ransom demand from Somali pirates was $5.4 million.)

It’s not the first time this has happened. A year ago almost to the day, North Koreans abducted 29 Chinese fishermen; the identity of the North Koreans, or whether they were authorities or autonomous kidnappers, remains unknown. The fishermen were returned and relieved of all their possessions, in some cases even including their clothes and the pencils in their pocket. Is the North Korean army so starved of resources that it would steal writing utensils from Chinese fishermen?

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Post tags: fishing, kidnapping, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, North Korea, North Korea relations
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