Entries Tagged 'China Blog News' ↓

I’d like to offer a belated congratulations to Simon for winning a 2007 Human Rights Press Award. His story on China’s justice system was one of two winners in the magazine category. The other winner was also from TIME Asia, Andrew Marshall’s story about last year’s protests in Burma. The awards, which are co-sponsored by Amnesty International (Hong Kong), the Hong Kong Journalists Association and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong, recognizes journalism that focuses on rights in Asia. Also of interest is John Kamm’s speech at the awards ceremony about the work his group, the Dui Hua Foundation, does to advocate for the release of political prisoners in China.

The Olympic Torch arrived in London yesterday. Here’s what the People’s Daily had to say (full story here):

Olympic flame crosses London amid snow
+ -
08:39, April 07, 2008

The heavy snow in London exerted slim effect on people’s passion of seeing Beijing Olympic flame as large crowds lined along the street to greet the relay of torch on Sunday in the host city of 2012 Games.

London boasted the longest relay of nearly 50 kilometers among cities outside China’s mainland. Eighty torchbearers, including Paralympics, Olympic athletes and celebrities carried the torch through ten London boroughs from Wembley to Greenwich. Landmark buildings and ancient sites witnessed the sacred flame.

Dragon and lion dancing performance dressed up the Chinatown like a festival. Large groups of Chinese in squares or concentration point waited the flame hours before its arrival.

Quintuple Olympic gold medallist rower from Marlow Bottom SteveRedgrave initiated the relay within the Wembley Stadium.

Redgrave just criticized the binding of Olympics and politics days before the relay.

And so on. No mention of anything but sweetness and light, cheering crowds of apple cheeked Britons braving the snow etc. Here, in contrast, is what the London tabloid the Daily Mail had to say (full story here, with pics):

What an advert for London 2012: Our Olympic showpiece ends in violence and farce
By SAM GREENHILL, BEN BROGAN, LUCY BALLINGER, OLINKA KOSTER and VANESSA ALLEN - More by this author » Last updated at 08:34am on 7th April 2008

Surrounded by a phalanx of Chinese security guards, British athlete Denise Lewis carries the Olympic torch into a Downing Street besieged by protesters.

The relay event through the capital had been billed as a journey of harmony and peace - not to mention a showcase for the London Games in 2012.

It turned into a combination of sinister and slapstick which did Britain no favours in the eyes of the world.

n bizarre scenes, Chinese security guards and hundreds of police fought running battles with protesters against the plight of Tibet.

Terrified athletes and celebrities carrying the torch were forced to run for cover.

Downing Street was privately furious as the embarrassing fiasco - costing £1million and likened to “Chinese police state tactics” in London - was beamed around the world on TV.

Because of the demonstrators, 35 of whom were arrested, the torch had to be escorted by jogging Metropolitan Police officers alongside the mysterious private army of Chinese guards.

Wearing blue tracksuits, the hired ‘thugs’ barged protesters out the way and even shoved spectators in Downing Street, where the torch was greeted by Gordon Brown.

As the surreal circus made its way through London, no one seemed able to prevent campaigners launching wave after wave of attack.

Flashpoints included Downing Street and outside the British Museum where more than 2,000 activists massed to protest China’s role in Tibet.

Former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq was almost knocked to the ground as a demonstrator tried to snatch the torch from her.

Elsewhere, as 100 protesters besieged the parade on Fleet Street, the torchbearing party was forced to stage a “breakout” using a London bus to reach the safety of St Paul’s Cathedral, where the procession resumed on foot.

Security was progressively stepped up until more than 50 police officers wearing heavy stabproof vests were taking part in the bizarre marathon.

“Violence and Farce” indeed. The television footage of course is much more dramatic than even the spirited account by the Mail. Paris is next, where there are bound to be more protests Meanwhile reports have started to surface of another confrontation over the weekend that saw Tibetan protesters shot in Sichaun Province. As ever, impossible to confirm what really happened. And, as it now looks more and more likely that reporters won’t be allowed in the Tibetan areas of China until after the Olympics, so it will be a long time, if ever, before the truth comes out.

Whatever the case though, such reports are bound to further inflame the protesters abroad, who obviously feel they have nothing to lose by putting pressure on China in the lead up to the games. If things get really ugly, they may have to cancel or severely cutback parts of the torch route. The biggest losers of course will be the ordinary Chinese people, who are justifiably proud of hosting the Olympics and who will be (are) understandably bitter that the event is already being marred. All this makes it even more difficult to figure out what the cadres in Beijing were thinking, knowing full well they would be the target of every activist with a grudge in the months leading up to the Games. Didn’t they have a plan other than sending in the troops and pretending nothing was happening?

Hillary Clinton has called on President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics. The odds of Bush heeding Clinton are about the same as him listening to Nancy Pelosi on this subject, which is to say nil. Clinton’s call has little to do with Sino-U.S. relations or even the Games themselves and everything to do with the presidential campaign. Clinton is trailing and in need of a pop. For at least one news cycle the boycott call gave her that. It’s worth noting, as Ben Smith did over at Politico, that the New York senator’s announcement comes immediately after Mark Penn’s departure from her campaign. There aren’t many votes to be won in U.S. elections playing nice with China. But the people motivated by tough talk on China? You can get a sense of that by watching the protests in San Francisco. On Monday a group of Tibet activists hung a banner across the Golden Gate bridge, and large demonstrations are expected during the torch run Wednesday.

Clinton’s announcement was well timed to coincide with the coverage of the U.S. leg of the torch run. It will be interesting to see whether her move will lead to an escalation of rhetoric about China by either Barack Obama or John McCain, who have also been tough on Beijing. Of course, what happens after a new president takes office next year will be completely different. Strident comments about China tend to backfire. Recall in 2001, when Bush said he would do “whatever it takes” to defend Taiwan. After that hubbub, the president has been much more nuanced in his approach to China. Indeed, after director Steven Spielberg said he was withdrawing from his role as a creative adviser to the Games’ opening ceremonies, Bush said he would still attend, noting that he has “a little different platform” for communicating with Beijing.

At the risk of turning this into the TIME: China and Self-Congratulations Blog, I am compelled to announce that I have reached a journalistic milestone. Is it the Pulitzer? Alas, no. To win one of those you have to work at a U.S.-based newspaper. And be really good. (On that point, congratulations to Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker of the New York Times for their recent Pulitzer win for the “Toxic Pipeline” series.) Is it a Human Rights Press Award? No, not that either. Instead, I have been honored by one of our China Blog readers by having my head morphed into that of Homer Simpson. I can only say that I am deeply flattered. While Homer and I share an appreciation for donuts and a certain beverage, his cultural influence is vastly greater than mine.

As to that photo, the folks at the US and China Today Blog (its motto reads in part: “Join us on this awefully important journey.” I guess “Screw spell-check” was taken) are not the only ones to point out its, ah, deficiencies. My own mother and father, who have agreed on little since the early ’90s, each told me over Christmas that I needed to change it.

I will point out that unlike Homer I do actually have hair, as you can see from this video, but it was conveniently cropped out by the editors. I blame Western media bias.

Interestingly, the US and China Today blog appears to be blocked in China. Maybe the net nanny has some other ideas about this awfully important journey.

Oooh, floor pie!

Given the recent growth of our Chinese readership, we plan to begin offering the occasional Chinese-language translations of our recent stories. This first piece, “Will the Olympic Torch Burn China?”, is by Simon Elegant.

为了适应越来越多的中国读者阅读时代周刊的需要，我们将不定期地刊载时代周刊的中文译文.

奥运火炬会灼伤中国吗？

艾西门/北京

在北京奥运会拉开序幕前的几个月里，中国正在跟看得见和看不见的阻挠者们进行着较量。那些明目张胆的反对者在奥运火炬环球接力的当口，成了世界媒体上的重要新闻。在火炬经过的所有地方都有中国的安保力量严密防守着企图破坏火炬正常接力的维权人士。 这些人已经准备好了利用这个机会抗议中国在西藏和幅员辽阔的新疆糟糕的人权记录。在伦敦，一名抗议者企图从火炬手中夺走火炬。火炬不得不在一辆巴士车上被保护着完成接力的一部分路段。之前在火炬穿越伊斯坦布尔时，土耳其警方逮捕了一名意欲攻击火炬手的人。 而周一在巴黎，接力活动的官员们甚至在抗议的包围下主动熄灭了火炬。

但是让北京最担心的是那些看不见的反对者，那些北京不想让全世界看见的反对者。 最近的报道显示，尽管中国军队已经在西藏进行了近三个星期的镇压，西藏零星的暴力事件仍在不断爆发。据西藏的流亡和维权人士称，中国警方4月3日在四川省甘孜向湟源寺的僧人开火，死伤人数不详。中国官方新华社证实了有冲突发生，但是没有报道有人员死亡。于此同时，这个让北京深感不安的趋势也扩散到了其他少数民族地区。经中国官方证实，这一次是在以穆斯林为主的西部省份新疆。跟往常一样，这一次外国维权人士和中国官方对事实的描述有着天壤之别。但毋庸置疑，一场相当规模的反对中国统治的骚乱在新疆发生了，参加抗议的人数达几百甚至上千。并且警方在骚乱中进行了围捕，逮捕了几十人。

There is nothing wrong, in principle, with the sensitive adaptation of a historic building for fresh purposes, but the news that parts of Beijing’s Summer Palace are to be turned into a luxury hotel and club is rather distressing. There can be no doubt that Aman Resorts, the company behind the redevelopment, will handle the refurbishment with great style, but that is hardly the point. The project itself is in questionable taste.
The Summer Palace was sacked by foreign troops in 1860, and again in 1900. With its partial conversion into extravagantly priced facilities for international tourists and executives, foreigners will once again be putting their feet up in its historically resonant surrounds. Chinese people—the vast majority of whom will be financially excluded—will once again be looking on forlornly. I wonder if the British authorities would give permission for a wing of Windsor Palace, or a part of the Tower of London, to be turned into a Ritz-Carlton.
China’s most globally recognized monument, the Great Wall, has already lost its mystique because multinational companies are allowed to use it for any lame stunt their marketing teams care to come up with. Should Fendi, to take one recent example, really be allowed to commit the vulgarity of staging a fashion show on the Great Wall’s ramparts? Why must we endure the dreadful sight of the elderly Karl Lagerfeld tottering along China’s heritage showpiece, air-kissing Eurofops and B-list celebrities?
The commercialization of the Great Wall has already raised issues that anyone interested in China’s monuments should be thinking about. But in the meantime, the Summer Palace has been invaded. Again.

Greetings:

I am on the road and have been unable to post for some days now. However I am back within internet uploading range and offer a video. Mystery prize to whoever can nail the location and say what these guys are up to:

Some comments about what Tonikenese, who correctly spotted that the video below was from Hotan, might want as a prize. I thought this was a pretty funny exchange. Nice to have a bit of humor after so much angst.

If he is a nationalistic Chinese , he might want you to portray China as a benign rising power that welcomes the world to join the Beijing Olympic Games in August, even just once.
If he is a anti-China Tibetan or western guy, he might demand that you step up the criticisim of Chinese government and the nationalistic Chinese who are so proud of the fact that Beijing is gonna host the Olympic Games.

Posted by peng200b | April 10, 2008 1:19 PM

mmm, none of peng200b’s suggestions are particularly appealing. I’ll just take satisfaction in having the right answer!

I spent a week in Hotan and Kashgar last October and loved the area — especially the fresh pomegranate juice!

Posted by tonkinese | April 10, 2008 4:59 PM

I still like 1world’s answer better. “Hmm, it can’t be anything good about China. Otherwise this is not Time.COM. That’s as much as I can NAIL it. Carry on…”

So, let see what ulterior motives and hidden agenda Simon has in showing this video.

OK, those jade must be fake, as we all know that most of the Jade from Hotan were exhausted for thousands of years. And therefore, Simon is showing us the underground smuggling ring of fake jade. Probably trading for opium the get across the border from Afghanistan. Moreover, the money they get in this trading are financing the plot to blow up the Games.

May be these are all undercover PLA officers trying to smear the good names of the Uyghers.

The plot thickens.

Posted by John Smith | April 10, 2008 7:10 PM

Fresh pomegranate juice indeed! Are you are you didn’t see any human right violations? Sorry Tonkinese, I’m afraid no prize for you;)

Posted by 1World | April 11, 2008 12:11 AM

Or it’s the CIA flooding the market with real Jade, so as to cause mass deflation of Jade prices, leading to a very localized economic recession, fueling separatist movements in Xinjiang. After the separation and first year of political chaos and coup d’etats, the USA (after retreating from Iraq) will send it’s army to Xinjiang, to gloriously liberate the people (on the basis of an anti muslim-terrorism operation), and install a puppet government.

Come on, are you guys blind, or is the truth just too painful?

Posted by BB | April 11, 2008 12:16 AM

Among other attractions (it is famous all over China for its white jade), Hetian, a small city in remote Xinjiang province, also makes carpets. I visited the factory where the workers get about 15 renminbi (about two dollars and change) an hour. It takes them about two months to make a medium-sized carpet. It’s hard, eye destroying (see the lady peering at the design at the end of the clip), backbreaking work. “Prison work,” as my local guide remarked. No kids at least, tho this was a government sanctioned factory so that would be unlikely. Makes you think twice or three times about buying a carpet, though. I didn’t, though the price tag (a couple of thousand dollars for that same medium-sized offering) might have had a role in that decision.

I attended the just completed weekend conference in Boao, at a nice, tropical waterfront resort here on Hainan Island. Boao is China’s Davos—or wishes to be, anyway—and this year President Hu Jintao attended, along with (among others) the Presidents or Prime Ministers from Sweden, Mongolia, Australia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Tonga and Pakistan. (Pervez Musharraf looked delighted to be out of Islamabad, however briefly. He also remains, second only perhaps to George Bush himself, the most intriguing figure among those who have waged “the global war on terror” since September 11, 2001. CIA director Gen. Mike Hayden in an interview a couple of weeks ago said that the truce Musharraf declared with the Taliban in the Northwest territories a couple of years ago was “a disaster.” A little later, in the same interview, he said that Pakistan had been the US’s most important ally in the war on terror. From an American perspective, trying to square that circle—and believe me, there will be plenty of after the fact books written about this—is what makes Musharraf, whose days, of course are numbered, such an intriguing figure.)
I digress. The theme of the conference was, alas, “Green Asia,” and what a “win-win” proposition it is to turn Asia “green.”
The reason I write `alas’ is that I don’t believe dealing with “climate change” is the cost free, job creating economic Wonderama that the Al Gores of the world make believe it is. (By the way, the alleged world threatening crisis is no longer called “global warming” because the globe’s temperature hasn’t been cooperating of late, so, shrewdly, environmentalists have latched onto “climate change” as the mantra of the moment, so any time it’s colder or warmer than it’s supposed to be anywhere on the globe the environmental lobby can blame it on the bad people who consume lots of oil and coal. ) As expected, at Boao, almost all the national leaders made speeches that genuflected at the altar of “climate change,” earnestly pledging their most heartfelt efforts to deal with the issue, etc etc.
All of the leaders, that is, except this one guy named…Hu Jintao. The host of the Boao summit, the leader of the world’s most populous, most rapidly growing nation—the nation that last year according to some estimates became the world’s most prolific spewer of CO2 into the atmosphere—gave a speech that actually was pretty important. It’s fairly rare, after all, that China’s top leader speaks before large, multinational forums. And no, he didn’t talk about Tibet (at all) or the Olympics (except in passing). But he did, in no uncertain terms, reinforce China’s intention to further and deepen economic “reforms and openness,” carrying on “the revolution” (his words) that Deng Xiaoping began 30 years ago.
This may seem like a banality, but believe me, it’s not. The infighting and rear guard actions within China over economic policy are as intense as it gets—no one gives up sinecures, whether state owned or otherwise, in any country easily, and in a place that’s as non transparent and (let’s be frank) as corrupt as this, it is doubly difficult. President Hu’s speech was emphatic, and the foreign businessmen in the crowd were very, very happy—as they should have been.
Well, most of the foreign businessmen. There were some in the audience who are part of the still small, but rapidly growing business of selling “green technology” in China, and they were dumbfounded. Hu mentioned “climate change” all of twice in a lengthy speech, most prominently in a checklist of actions China needs to take with other Asian nations over the next few years. To be precise, it was third on his checklist, just ahead of pan Asian “water conservation” efforts, but just behind—I repeat, BEHIND– cooperating on “disaster prevention and reduction” and “public health.”
I’m not making this up. The entire point of the conference was “ Green Asia” and all the horrors climate change is allegedly inflicting upon us, and Hu more or less blew it off.
I’m not going to burn people I spoke to after this by identifying them, because they didn’t think they were talking to someone who was going to put their comments on a “blog” a day later. But one very prominent attendee—a political figure– shrugged and said, “look, China’s hosting what it’s calling a “Green Olympics” this summer, and the only way they can get the air clean is by shutting the place down entirely at least a month in advance. He can’t oversell this environmental stuff.”
Another American businessman, who is about as charged up as you can get about selling “green technology” in China, was despondent and confused. What was the message you took from that, he asked me later. I tried to be gentle, but there was only one message. Sometimes by what they //don’t // say leaders convey what the message actually is.

Some of us were in a holding room after the speech, to have a group photograph taken with President Hu. (Why some were included in this and others not is beyond me. It didn’t seem to have to do with conference sponsorship). A few of us were discussing the same topic: why, at a forum devoted to the environment and “Green Asia” did the keynote speaker– the second most important political leader on the face of the earth– barely touch on the topic du jour? Point blank, to a senior executive at a VERY large company in Asia (not based in China or Japan), I asked: “You’re Hu Jintao. You run China; 1.3 billion people; lots and lots of problems to deal with. Tell me, seriously, how much time do you think you spend worrying about climate change?”
With a tight smile, the executive replied. “Not a lot.”
Which is the correct answer.

So the Dalai Lama is in the U.S. and is going to meet US President George W. Bush’s special envoy, Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky. The timing is, to put it mildly, unfortunate. There’s already so much sound and fury out there that it’s hard to think constructively. Beijing is already steaming mad and no doubt the internet will add the the furore. At this point it would be great if everyone could just back off, take a deep breath and maybe start over. But of course, that’s the whole point of the lead up to the Olympics, it’s irresistible to protesters as the pressure on China will only get stronger as 8-8-08 (the opening ceremony date) approaches. It’s still puzzling what exactly they hope to accomplish. The Darfur campaigners have actually won some ground from China, though to them, it is too little too late. But as to the rest, and in particular the well organized Tibetan campaign, it’s now a losing game. There’s no way Beijing is going to concede anything, particularly having let the nationalism demon out of the closet. Can you imagine the reaction now if the Foreign Ministry suddenly announced that the DL had come to an agreement allowing him to return to Tibet, or even just that official talks had been agreed?

I just hope that we can get through to a fairly calm, successful Olympics without adding another scar to the Chinese roll call of national humiliation: the Opium wars, first burning of Summer Palace, Boxer Rebellion, invasions, second burning, Japanese invasion and various other malfeasances, this list now possibly ending with some sort of half baked boycott of the Olympics. Frankly, I think we all hoped (and wrote) that a successful staging of the Olympics would allow Chinese to get beyond that stale archetype and take a confident place on the world stage. I still think a lot of the indignation (boycott Carrefour! apologize for calling us goons!) really is noise and light that will die away. The Chinese are a great people and while they may be irritated by criticism (most of it by the way, directed at the government, not the people, a critical distinction, particularly for Americans, most of whom are at best embarrassed by Mr. Bush when asked about him by foreign friends if not downright appalled), they and the country know that when you play in the big leagues you have to be able to take criticism from friends and opponents. (A point trenchantly made at Peking University recently in a speech by Oz PM Kevin Rudd.)

Meanwhile, let’s hope that Ms. Dobriansky can at least remember that she’s talking about Tibet, NOT Nepal. (for anyone who has yet to see Bush’s National Security adviser making an utter turkey out of himself, here’s the link)

Lawyers for jailed dissident Hu Jia (see many past references, most recently this on his sentence) went in on Monday to try and see their client and ask whether he wanted to appeal the three and a half year prison sentence he received April 2nd for inciting subversion of state power. But when they got there, the detention center told the lawyers that Hu was not available because he was going through a routine physical check up before moving to the prison where he would serve his sentence.

They went back yesterday afternoon, says one of his lawyers, Li Fangping, but were again refused permission to see him, this time because they hadn’t seen him the day before. “The detention center told us that we had already missed the deadline for appeal, and as Hu’s first trial defense lawyers, we couldn’t meet him now.” In other words because they had missed the deadline and Hu hadn’t appealed, they were no longer his lawyers.

The lawyers actually have obtained a signed power of attorney from Hu’s family to represent him in any appeal trial, but the detention center would not accept that. “We explained that we are authorized to represent him if he is to appeal, but the officials told us that then we can just wait to hear from the court of appeal, which is the Beijing high court in this case.”

“Now no one even knows whether Hu Jia had requested an appeal. The officials just would not say. We don’t even know about his health condition. They didn’t tell us the result of his physical examination. We are completely shut out of the case now.” If Hu himself has requested an appeal, the lawyers might “hear from the court in 20 days.” Meanwhile, Li said their only option was to “keep trying to contact the court authorities to find about about Hu.”