Below are two reports filed on February 4, 2012 on the conflict within Syria. One by Russia Today and the other by BBC. With President Obama saying “regime change,” I think it is clear if the U.N. resolution was passed, Syria would be attacked by NATO – like what happened recently to Libya. More striking than anything else, these two reports show journalism is not about journalism anymore. Is the BBC the liar? Is Russia Today the liar? I remember hearing the motto, “we report, you decide.” I think for today, it is “we must seek out many sources and then decide.”
We recently noticed a peculiar phenomenon over at the China Law Blog. Since about two weeks ago, they started publishing a series of articles with the title, “The End of Cheap China,” followed by something else. We also know Shaun Rein has been marketing his book for months now – “The End of Cheap China.” (Allen will be writing a review, by the way.) The interesting thing is that the China Law Blog makes no mention of the book whatsoever in their series of articles.
Now, do a search on “The End of Cheap China” on Google. Unsurprisingly, the book shows up at the top due to Amazon’s, Rein’s, and the publisher’s marketing efforts. However, look at the next five top search results (#2 through #6) from Google (results were at the time of this writing): Read more…
If not for the United States, Shandong Province (山东省), map to the left, may still be a Japanese territory today. Reader perspectivehere brought to our attention tomorrow (Feb. 4th) will be the 90th anniversary of the Washington Naval Conference of 1929 which gave back sovereignty of Shandong Province to China. It was The Treaty of Versailles marking the end of WW1 in 1919 that transferred this German “sphere of influence” territory to Japan without China’s approval.
History has many twists and turns. If not for the United States defeating Japan in WW2, the China today might not be intact. John Woo is now making a new epic film about the Flying Tigers to commemorate this important period when the two countries aided each other.
The United States also has China to thank for – for resisting and bogging down the Japanese army in China’s large land mass. Read more…
There has been a lot of coverage in the U.S. media lately about America’s Asia ‘pivot.’ In particular, U.S. seems to be taking sides with Vietnam and Philippines in their disputes with China.
The U.S. relationships with these two countries are nothing but complex. When the Philippines was colonized by the Spanish, the U.S. took sides with the Philippines to oust Spain. Little did the Filipinos knew they would have to fight the Americans in yet another attempt to gain freedom. Filipinos estimated 1+ million were killed as a result of that war. The story in Vietnam was not that dissimilar. The Vietnamese were fighting to end French aggression. After the French withdrew, the United States went in on the grounds of stopping Communism from spreading. From the North Vietnamese perspective, it was a new imperialist, and they were fighting yet again for their freedom. Again, with millions dead. Read more…
The Economist recently announced a dedicated weekly section on China. It said, China is the second country for them to have done this for, followed only by their singling out the United States since 1942. In my view, the extra attention they give to ‘China’ as a topic is hardly going to help Westerners’ understanding of China. Their editorial staff really needs an overhaul, as one of their reader observes:
You need an editor and staff with some personal background in China (and I don’t mean expats with Chinese spouses). You need better academic resources. And somehow you must all learn that western values are not universal values, and that all cultures are internally legitimate yet benefit from external contact. To fail in this regard will simply amplify existing cultural misunderstandings and cripple the great impending social and political globalizations that must follow the economic one already in progress.
The Economist’s coverage of China is bigoted, as exemplified by their debut article – which I am rebutting in this post (my rebuttal on the right). If The Economist is genuinely interested in improving China for the Chinese, they’d be able to discuss the issues and policies specifically – not a wholesale rejection of the China ‘model.’ Read more…
We are here to offer a balance that is sorely lacking in the mainstream Western press about all things ‘China’ and ‘Chinese.’ Some of you might have wondered how this endeavor is fairing as we approach our second year. Allen and I are grateful of the authors and those of you who come here to comment. This short post is a ‘thank you’ and an example of the real impact this is having in getting more balance out there. Read more…
At Chicago, a Chinese boy was brutally beaten by seven teens, including a girl who lured him into an alley where the beating took place. An article filed by NYDailyNews.com said, “Cops don’t believe the attack was racially motivated.” I will update this post as I learn more. WARNING: video is violent. Read more…
Zhang Weiwei was a translator to former Chinese leader, Deng Xiaoping. We have a prior article (translated from Chinese) of his arguing there is a progression for which ‘democracy’ can be achieved, but more than that, China should borrow and adapt practices that are useful for China’s own conditions. In this interview (use this link if the embedded video below doesn’t show) with Al Jazeera (h/t Ray), Zhang provides a ‘Chinese’ response to strongly held notions in the West about “multi-party democracy,” explains how China is advancing her ‘model’ through localized experimentation, and details what he means by the ‘civilization state.’ (See also Martin Jacques.)
On November 29, 2011, the Washington Post cited on a page 1 story a study done at the Georgetown University that China’s nuclear arsenal was 10x as large U.S. government official (and experts) estimates. The study and the article drew a great deal of attention. The information was false. MIT Associate Professor of Political Science, M. Taylor Fravel, has done an excellent write up of this controversy, and his analysis also revealed exaggeration of Chinese troops bordering India. Read more…
Dan Harris over at China Law Blog made a bold post today relaying complaints students at the University of Washington have for their fellow international students from Mainland China. He qualified that the complaints were directed at students from China and not of students with Chinese ethnicity. He also qualified the students whom he got the complaints were “sophisticated, intelligent, and well-traveled.”
In this post, I’d like to address those complaints. Before I get into it though, I’d like to make several observations. Read more…
(On January 5, 2012, I sat down with Shaun Rein, founder and Managing Director of the China Market Research Group, to talk about China. He gave us his insights into major events of 2011. You may listen to the podcast or read the transcript below. Click on the play button or right-click on the link to save the podcast for local listening: link. In this hour-long interview, we touched on many topics: pollution, CNN and Christian Bale’s recent run-in with Chinese police, food safety, Weibo, and so on.)
DeWang:2011 was another eventful year for China. Just when her bullet train seems unstoppable, a fatal collision left the whole country in doubt. China achieved space docking, something only the U.S. and Russia have managed. Then there was Tiger Mom.
I have invited a real China expert to weigh in on these events and other events that mattered to China. What were the Chinese narratives? How did the Chinese feel about them? I couldn’t have found a better person to do this with. Read more…
Below are couple of shots taken at Lake Tahoe where I vacationed this past week. Generally, I was impressed with how environmentally conscience American society has become, and the pristine waters and clean beaches at the lake reminded me of that. Recycling is in full force. I recall back in the 80′s, recycling was still not a daily vocabulary. It is today. Read more…
In an earlier comment I talked about the importance of “国家,” and having just watched this music video by Jacky Chan (成龙) in duet with MEI He (美和) paying homage to that same idea made my day. Without a strong enough country, there is no freedom.
Earlier this year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton laid out the blueprint for U.S. foreign policy in pursuit of “Internet Freedom” around the world. As I stated in a prior post, I believed this is a way to ensure U.S. government can support political oppositions in countries around the world and to lend them a voice with propaganda on the Internet. Glenn Greenwald recently labeled U.S. hypocrisy on Internet Freedom “egregious and shameless,” while responding to Secretary Clinton’s December 8, 2011 speech at The Hague. Read more…
I was invited to Jun Lu Performing Arts as a guest photographer for their year-end performance at Santa Clara University’s Mayer Theatre this past Sunday. It was titled, “龙的传人.” Jun Lu is an accomplished dancer, choreographer, and teacher. Her dancers brought cheers and thunderous applause from the audience. The theatre house manager at the end of the show commented this was the best dance show he has seen performed at Mayer. I’ll just say – I was dazzled. I kept wanting to put down my camera so I could take it all in! Read more…
Around 2:15pm this afternoon, a ‘human rights’ protester fired a number of shots at the Chinese Consulate aiming for a security guard, according the the AP. Below is a brief AP report relayed on the Huffington Post:
“Shots fired at Chinese Consulate in LA, 1 arrested”
December 16, 2011 12:31 AM EST |
LOS ANGELES — Police said they have arrested a man in relation to a Thursday afternoon shooting outside the Chinese Consulate building in downtown Los Angeles. Read more…
Today marks the 74th anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, where Japanese soldiers went on a rampage of rape and murder, targeting women and children alike, killing more than 300,000 Chinese during the brief few weeks when they took over Nanjing, then capital city of the nationalist government. The issue that is perhaps the most contentious between Japan and China is Japanese history text books largely having this tragedy swept under the carpet; vastly toned down without admission of guilt or completely ignored altogether. The Japanese impasse with the rest of her Asian neighbors is similarly over prevailing Japanese unrepentant attitudes towards her colonial past. Germany’s attitude and actions towards their WW2 past offer a big contrast. Read more…
The following analysis came via William Hooper at the Oligarch. Much of it resonates with me. It is in response to the latest politics between the U.K. and the European mainland where U.K. is decidedly against Germany’s and France’s efforts in dealing with the Euro financial crisis. Hooper’s characterization, eloquently, of U.K.’s latest actions is apt too, in my opinion, of the prevailing mindset in the U.S. mass media towards everyone else:
Once someone seriously looses sight of everything except their own self interest, they become a “wild beast” held in check only by “fear of punishment” not “shame”.
The TED interview below (video at the end of the post) was conducted in July 2010 with Julian Assange talking about the need for the public to keep an eye out for government conduct. Americans cherish freedom of the press, and by that, it is generally understood that the media’s job is to be the watchdog of the government and any other organization of power.
Do Americans have freedom of the press? I don’t think so. Or definitely not in function as how Americans understand their purpose to be. Assange is about to release a new documentary film criticizing the Western media. Referring to the New York Times, he said: Read more…
Following is a rendition of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” in Chinese. It’s a delightful performance. The Chinese performance struck me for having taken the music (in my opinion the great part) and replacing the lyrics (in my opinion the not so great part) with something that is much more palatable. While China has many problems to overcome, she is also benefiting from experiences in societies abroad. The benefit of coming from behind is you have the luxury to pick and choose. Not to mention, who would imagine there’s a connection between Lady Gaga and grandma’s and grandpa’s in China!
(Here is another performance by 钟辰乐 (Zhong Chen Yue) singing “Memory” accompanied by an orchestra. I think I still prefer his China’s Got Talent version from a while ago.)
When you think of the word, culture, what comes to mind? For some, it means identity. Others who accept Henry Kissinger’s argument, that China finds exceptionalism in culture while America pursues ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’ with missionary zeal, culture defines values. When I think of Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, (with due respect of course) I think of pockets of Chinese culture bifurcated during heights of Chinese civilization. Chinatowns throughout the world are time-capsules of Chinese culture too. A good friend of mine who was born in Vietnam once told me he was more ‘Chinese’ than me!
Today, I was thoroughly impressed by Chinese folk dance performances done by very young students of the accomplished Jun Lu Performing Arts Academy. Jun Lu is very much keeping this aspect of Chinese culture alive in the San Francisco Bay Area Chinese American community. I applaud her. I applaud the parents and students who dedicate time to these wonderful arts. Below are some pictures I took. Read more…
Former U.S. Ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman, in a televised Republican primary debate told Americans he would reach out to the 500 million Chinese Internet users; to lead them towards change which would ultimately “take China down.” Video below has been circulating in China. It contains what Huntsman said captioned in Chinese. I want to share reader silentchinese‘s response.
Professor of political science and dean of the Institute of Modern International Relations at Tsinghua University, Yan Xuetong, recently had one of his Chinese essays translated by Zhaowen Wu and David Liu and published as an Op-Ed in the New York Times. Professor Yan is also the editor of The Chinese Journal of International Politics. He is a political realist and a ‘Chinese’ voice on matters of China’s rise, especially in relations to the United States. His essay below states that “the country that displays more humane authority will win” the world leadership race. Read more…
As long as those groups keep espousing that narrowed minded racist view, they would have no support from people outside their respective ethnicity. And even those bigots are nothing but a minute minority much like Anders Breivik. Just imagine what the US govn’t would do to its citizens who do not consider themselves citizens and want to run an ethnic cleansing program of uprooting others they considered not one of their own? To top it off, these groups only raison d’etre seems to come from foreign funding. When those funding are gone, so would they. (Ray)
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