Hidden Harmonies China Blog

"Examining The Non-Existent “Rich Chinese Hunting Polar Bear” Story" by Charles Liu

Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波), Google, Individualism vs Collectivism, Media Bias, Dalai Lama, Osama bin Laden, Ai Weiwei

In this American Public Media’s Marketplace report (which I heard on NPR yesterday), reporter Rob Schmitz casts some doubts about China’s investments in Mongolia (podcast segment starts at 10:40 mark), especially with respect to recently discovered coal deposits. Of course, this is the same Rob Schmitz who exposed the Mike Daisey lies about working conditions at Foxconn. Schmitz is one of the best Western reporters covering China right now. I love listening to Marketplace and appreciate his work. Read more…

Japan’s claim to Okinotori Atoll as island was recently rejected by the U.N. Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLCS). If succeeded, Japan would be entitled to a continental shelf and an EEZ covering more than 100,000 square kilometers. Following is a report translated by People’s Daily Online from it’s Chinese original “国际正义不许冲之鸟变礁为’岛’“. Note that Japan’s claims were disputed by China and South Korea. Also, Japan have for years tried to become a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, though have always been thwarted by her Asian neighbors due to conflict over Japan’s watering down of her colonial atrocities. The region is complex to say the least. Read more…

China has repeatedly been billed as the largest energy consumer and portrayed as possible future aggressor in the quest for more energy, mineral, and even water resources. Most western press also mentioned that China is a resource poor country that consumed a prodigious amount of minerals. However, the first point is factually wrong. Read more…

A court In Kuala Lumpur has found Bush and many of his administration and his advisers, tried in absentia, guilty of war crimes. Of course, that is not surprising considering that the evidence is overwhelmingly against them. Many of Obama’s administration including the commander in chief are almost certainly just as guilty. This represents a symbolic victory because currently international law lacks a lot of enforcement. But symbolic victories do count in law because they set important precedents.  As the prosecutor explained, he was hopeful that other countries may follow suite in precedent setting fashion and make these war criminals impossible to travel to other countries without arrest and imprisonment.

But what struck me is that the lead prosecutor (an American) said that his team had tried to prosecute Bush and Co in many Western countries including Spain, Canada and Germany but were “thwarted” by their governments.

Read more…

James Fallows is one of the most accomplished journalists in the West. His talents were demonstrated very early on in his career, being former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s chief speechwriter; the youngest person to ever hold such a job. Personally, I admire his understanding of the Western media. For example, his take on the “new media” is totally excellent. However, Fallows doesn’t ‘get’ China. As humans, our imagination is often limited by our biases, and in his latest article, “What Is the Chinese Dream?” he dared implying a nation of 1.3 billion without dreams. It’s preposterous. While the article is certainly helping to frame the ongoing debate about China’s rise, the article is also an indication of what’s wrong with the prevailing Western narratives about China. Read more…

Quantum entanglement is a curious physical property of our universe where paired quantum objects, regardless where they are, instantly reflect one another. Albert Einstein called this “Spooky action at a distance.” Photons (light particles) are quantum objects. Physicists have experimentally confirmed this entanglement phenomenon. One way is to split a photon into two lower-energy photons, and the resulting pair becomes entangled. (Here is a good explanation.) Photons have various properties. When a property in the entangled pair is altered, the other’s same property reflects instantaneously. Physicists have demonstrated separating the entangled photons using fiber optics cables. Again, over some distance, the entanglement property holds. Read more…

I usually don’t have much problems with Chinese women dating and marrying white men.  Traditionally I typically view them on an individual basis. If the relationship last and works out for both parties, it’s a win-win for all – who cares about if two people are of different races?

Sure, I don’t deny that the phenomenon of Chinese women looking to date and marry white men do raise some broader potential social / cultural issues for me.  Why does it seem like some Chinese women are purposefully shunning Chinese men?  Why are so many white men successful in looking to date and marry only Chinese women but why is it much rarer to find Chinese men dating and marrying white women?

I usually chalk up these nagging social issues to women looking to move up the social and economic ladder.

Because of the history of the last 200 years, Westerners typically make more money, are financially more successful and stable, than Chinese.  To the extent women (Chinese included) marry for security, dating and marrying white men seems only natural.  From the Chinese perspective, it might even be encouraged, if nothing else than to improve the quality of life some of its people through the fast track.

But recently, I came across this WSJ report that seems to turn that theory upside down.  It appears in Hong Kong, the real action is not of poor Chinese women marrying rich foreign men, which I understand, but rich Chinese women seeking out to marry white men.

The above picture apparently caused quite a stir and went viral in Hong Kong cyberspace recently.

Here is a copy of the WSJ article in full: Read more…

Another common meme to dehumanize and defame the Chinese people is that they are cannibals and specifically eat babies. The Nazi analogy, the cruelty to animals meme and this meme have been very successfully employed in getting people to see the Chinese people as less than human. After all, what’s more worthy of white folk’s’ sympathies than Tibetans, cute furry animals and babies? What’s more worthy of condemnation and foam-at-the-mouth vitriol than any perceived harm done to those most venerable groups of innocent beings? The latest epidemic in this last infestation of hate-mongering is from South Korean customs officials that claim that pills made of ground up baby powder was manufactured in China to be distributed in South Korea as medicine and “stamina enhancement” supplements.

Read more…

Recently, Hidden Harmonies has been plagued by trolls impersonating other readers. For example, a “Raj” has been impersonating a “Cathy Graham,” a “denk,” a “Schmidt,” a “Wayne.” Trolls like that use a VPN service to grab new IP addresses for each new comment. This way, IP bans are ineffective. Moving forward, we are requiring all readers to first log in before commenting is allowed. This way, we can revoke a troll’s account, making their spams much more difficult to get through. Read more…

In debates, it is common for “pro-China” arguments to be dismissed by hypocrites who trot out the “two wrongs don’t make a right” fallacy. For example, a murderer criticizes a one-time burglar to no end, and the burglar finally points out the murderer’s heinous crime. The burglar obviously cannot absolve his guilt by pointing out someone else’s wrong. Hence, the “two wrongs don’t make a right” fallacy. However, the burglar is absolutely correct to point out the hypocrisy, especially when the murderer makes himself out to be a model citizen. That fallacy cannot simply be used to dismiss the burglar’s rightful criticism. To do so is to further heighten that hypocrisy at best, or at worse to not accept one’s own heinous act as crime which makes that person more prone to repeat. Read more…

The following report by Russia Today is about a year old, but is just as applicable today, or for that matter, for the years to come. We often hear in the Western press that the Internet democratizes information. I think that’s very true. But they often portray it, for example, in China’s case, as Chinese public rising up using the Internet to challenge the Chinese government. That was really the rage during the “dot com” boom period. Recently, since social media is hot, that narrative is recycled with a social media twist. Or when the Arab Spring was hot, the narrative was yet again recycled into a “Jasmine Revolution” for China. However, as this RT report suggests, there is also the bigger trend of narratives put forth on the global stage by countries like Russia and China. The West will increasingly dominate less. Perhaps “war” is too strong a word. I sincerely hope the different narratives serve to balance. Read more…

There is a missing dialog of US’s “Human Rights” for Chen Guangcheng (CGC).  That is, you don’t hear the US talk about “Rule of Law” much in this CGC story.

That’s because every one in the Western Media, the Western NGO’s, the Activists, and the US government, knows, CGC’s case has nothing to do with “Rule of Law”, It’s all out no holds bar, “vigilante Human Rights justice”.

Read more…

 

SophosLab published a list of top 12 email SPAM sources by country,

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/04/23/india-becomes-the-king-of-the-spammers-stealing-americas-crown/

the top twelve spam relaying countries for January – March 2012

1. India	9.3%
2. USA	8.3%
3. S Korea	5.7%
4= Indonesia	5.0%
4= Russia	5.0%
6. Italy	4.9%
7. Brazil	4.3%
8. Poland	3.9%
9. Pakistan	3.3%
10. Vietnam	3.2%
11. Taiwan	2.9%
12. Peru	2.5%
Other	41.7%

 

Read more…

Following is a picture of Shanghai in 272 giga-pixels. Clicking on it will launch a new window allowing you to click and zoom. Can you find the Howard Johnson building? The Tiffany and Company billboard? All the key buildings that make the Shanghai skyline are easy to find. I am not quite sure how this image was put together. Here is a collection of 20+ giga-pixel photographs, all of which are amazine!

(Update April 29, 2012: with response to Kai’s comment below. Update May 1, 2012: highlighting analysis done by reader perspectivehere in the comments section. May 5, 2012: Chen had dealings with the NED since 2004. See details below.)
From the Chinese perspective, the West’s willingness to go so far as to bestow the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize to a convicted criminal, Liu Xiaobo, really goes to show the level of religiousity in their pursuit of “democracy” and “human rights” against the Chinese government. China in recent years has started to use the phrase “judicial sovereignty” to more categorically deny Westerners attempt at meddling in China’s internal affairs. It is with such perspective I think most appropriate in understanding the likely outcome for recently escaped from house-arrest Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚). Read more…

For people who have wondered why the Chinese government cracks down on the FLG, supposedly a ‘spiritual movement,’ well, the following Tweet from reporter Rob Schmitz says it all. Marketplace from American Public Media is one of my favorite shows on NPR that I listen to. Schmitz has been in the news more, lately, because he exposed Mike Daisey’s lies about Foxconn. Anyways, Schmitz reports out of Shanghai for Marketplace. China politely and quietly takes this nonsense as the National Endowment for Democracy sponsors such political opposition. “WTF” is indeed the appropriate response, though Schmitz may not be reacting as broadly as I am.

So it’s very common to see this moronic rhetorical question used against anyone that is criticizing aspects of the US or supporting aspects of China. It’s really just the “love it or leave it” trope often used by ignorant bigots. So, once and for all, here’s why this fallacy is ridiculous so that any future fool/troll (hence called “haters”)  that wish to use that as a response to any argument thinking that it’s clever and effective will be better educated.

Read more…

This post may appear a bit from the left field. The Youku video below is a performance by Ye Zihan (叶紫涵), who cross-dresses and performs as a woman. Some may even think he is very pretty. What’s more interesting is the Q&A with the judges that follows.

Read more…

China’s development has seen a dramatic rise in quality of life for many of its people as many people are well aware. But despite this improvement in quality of life, modern China also has some very high suicide rates. According to 2010 figures supplied by the WHO, China is ranked 9th in the world in suicide rates behind Latvia and ahead of Slovenia.

What accounts for this high rate and what are some things the government or others do to reduce this trend?

Read more…

From imgur.  This image almost brought tears to my eyes.  I am so disappointed in the lack of humanity in the Western press. The plight of Iraqi children not told.  So much for human rights bullshitery. [Update April 22, 2012: As a reader pointed out below in the comment section, this image seems to be taken from a public service announcement; not a genuine story. However, nobody is denying the monstrosity that took place in Iraq in the last couple of decades, and perhaps that blame lays not only at the Western media but squarely too at the American public as melektaus rightfully put it.]

So I’ve been reading a lot on the media – and on many Indian blogs – how India’s Agni-V missile is going to reposition the balance of power in Asia, how it is designed to target Beijing and Shanghai. ¹  Presumptively, India had notified all members on the security counsel – but China – ahead of the test.

Because there are so much hot air out there, I’d like to point people out to three articles that may be of interest. Read more…

In photography, you learn a lot by looking at pictures others have taken. So, today, while browsing Xinhua’s photo section I was struck by some featured images, which lead me to the company, 纯粹视觉婚纱摄影机构 (Pureness Vision Photography Agency). There I saw many more amazing portraits. I took liberty in assembling some to share here, while hoping they won’t mind in exchange some publicity on this blog. People visiting China on vacation may consider such a company part of their trip, because elsewhere such quality would likely command 3x the price. Click on image to see a slideshow of what I pulled.

(Update 4/20/2012: see update section below with response from Branigan.)
There has been a lot of rumor mongering going on in the Western press about Bo Xilai and the alleged murder of British citizen Neil Heywood by his wife Gu Kailai. In an otherwise fairly well researched article by Guardian U.K. reporter, Tania Branigan, there were couple of crucial errors that were uncalled for. This scandal is indeed one about corruption. However, as Premier Wen recently said, corruption is the most critical problem China faces today. That view is unanimous across the whole country. Insinuating the Chinese government not sincere about it is ridiculous. Read more…

Recently, we hear a growing chorus how the China – Philippines dispute in the South China Seas ought to be settled by binding arbitration under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). ¹ We already have dealt with some of the political dimensions of this (see, e.g., our South China Seas tag), and I won’t rehash them here. But I do want to bring up a couple of points that seem lost in the current fray. Read more…