A panel of experts from China University of Political Science and Law have proposed establishing an independent human rights commission in a recent forum attended by both Chinese and foreign human rights experts. (China Daily has more details.) If this proposal becomes enshrined in China’s constitution, that’d be a really interesting development. Below are couple of key passages from the China Daily report: Read more…
(Update Sept 21, 2011, courtesy of Ray. Click to see Chinese characters outside the cockpit. Update Oct. 2, 2011; Turns out this picture was photoshopped. See comment #52 onward.))
The last time the U.S. sold weapons to Taiwan ($6.4 billion worth in January 2010) led to China suspending military-to-military contacts with the U.S.. Senator Dianne Feinstein, who also chairs Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, has subsequently said in public the weapons sale was a mistake. In the news again, looks like Obama is approving the sales of upgrades to Taiwan’s fleet of F-16 jet fighters. As expected, China is warning strong reaction if any sort of deal going through. (See “Backlash expected if US seals arms deal.”) Read more…
Lecturing others amounts to schadenfreude. Wait. What?
An interesting phenomenon seems to be in the air. With the current financial crisis in America and unrest in Britain, it appears that multiple western media outlets cannot resist the temptation to interpret China’s and other countries’ responses in terms of “schadenfreude“. Although not as amusing as accusing the politburo of smoking weed, it certainly has all the qualities that characterize the distinct flavours of garrulous western reporting about China and Asia in general.
In response to the crises in Washington, Xinhua, in a much cited phrase (One that the international media has gone completely gaga over), called upon the US to “cure its addiction to debt” . This was interpreted by The Economist as schadenfreude, claiming that “regional celebrations” have erupted in Asia over the debt crisis. Read more…
Georgetown University’s Hoyas (乔治城大学) basketball team is currently in China playing against various Chinese teams on a friendship tour. In an exhibition game against the Bayi Rockets (八一火箭队) yesterday, a brawl broke out between the two. This took place at about ten minutes left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 63.
I haven’t watched the game, but according to Wikipedia, Bayi Rockets shot 57 free throws vs. Georgetown Hoyas’ 15. This clearly meant Hoyas fouling more and physically much more aggressive. A Washington Post reporter said this to NPR which I thought was rather dishonest. What he said was technically true, but through omission of the above key facts, his and NPR’s narratives cleverly biased the blame onto the Bayi Rockets. Read more…
(Update: see Ray’s comments below. I originally had ‘sacked’ in the title which is probably too harsh given he is reassigned to another post.)
Out of the recent bullet train crash near Wenzhou, I think one of the biggest lessons for the Ministry of Rail is the importance of good PR. Spokesperson Wang Yongping (王勇平) has created many controversies and was subject of a lot of public anger and criticisms. (See here and here.) According to Caixing, Wang Yongping has now been dismissed from his post. Read more…
BEIJING (AFP) — China’s Premier Wen Jiabao on Monday pledged 353.2 million yuan ($55.3 million) in food aid to African countries suffering their worst drought in years.
After first reading this article from the Associated Press (echoed by the NPR), I thought, well, it seems to be all facts based. Over the years, I have come to realize critical thinking is required when consuming Western press. Read the left column through first before reading my comments on the right. Try to ignore my highlighting. Let me know if you think I am being too critical. Did my points of contention jump out at you during your initial reading? Read more…
A group of security forces patrol central Kashi, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region on Tuesday. (Global Times)
Global Times carried some really good coverage of the recent attacks in Kashgar, shedding light on the tension in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Rest of this post is really just the Global Times article itself. That one idea I feel deserves still extra mentioning is the fact that people when feeling there is nothing to loose, will tend to engage in more extremist behavior. Thus, I feel China must continue her path of economic progress. Integrating young ethnic Uyghurs and helping them gain employment is a great idea. Perhaps America will learn to do that with Black youths from inner cities and Natives from Indian reservations across the country too. Read more…
The economic reform of the 1980s brought many benefits but also meant that the health care sector was changed from the previous “universal coverage” to paid only service. This means that many of the poorer people was unable to afford health care. It is one of the biggest source of grief for the society. One component of affordable health care is the price of the medicine. By allowing the various provinces to experiment with various system, it seems the central government has decided to go with this system. There are still many reforms ahead be it in education, health care or governance but at least this is what I consider a big step ahead.
News of the uncovering of the “biggest-ever” series of cyber attacks by McAfee seems to be spreading through the media like wildfire. In thisWashington Post article, it is reported:
A leading computer security firm has used logs produced by a single server to trace the hacking of more than 70 corporations and government organizations over many months, and experts familiar with the analysis say the snooping probably originated in China.
Among the targets were the Hong Kong and New York offices of the Associated Press, where unsuspecting reporters working on China issues clicked on infected links in e-mail, the experts said. Read more…
WENZHOU, July 28 (Xinhua) — Design flaws in railway signal equipment led to Saturday’s fatal high-speed train collision near Wenzhou in Zhejiang Province, the Shanghai Railway Bureau said on Thursday.
Having been struck by lightning, the signal system at Wenzhou South Railway Station failed to turn the green light to red, which caused the rear-end collision, said An Lusheng, head of the Shanghai Railway Bureau, at an investigation meeting held by the State Council in Wenzhou on Thursday. Read more…
I have been following the development of the D301 and D3115 bullet train crash in Wenzhou. Following segment is from CCTV of a panel criticizing how the Chinese government has handled the rescue and investigation so far. The burying of train D301′s head really doesn’t make sense. The panel raises quite a few issues and I can see the Ministry of Rail having a daunting task ahead in addressing these questions. It is not just the accident itself, but also the activities immediately follows will be scrutinized by the Chinese media. (Update: my translation below the video. Click ‘more.’ This is not a word for word translation, but my first pass at it. I am open to corrections. My vocabulary is not great, and since this is audio, I can’t use a dictionary. I believe the two panelists represent the present mood of the populace.)
Ministry of Rail spokesperson Wang Yongping bows to passengers at press conference (Xinhua)
The Chinese media has been pressing for information relating to why didn’t the D301 train stop in time and instead rear-ended the D3115. In the latest press conference over the collision, Ministry of Rail spokesperson Wang Yongping (王勇平) informed the press that the ‘blackbox’ for the D301 train has been recovered and experts are investigating the cause of the crash. So far, 38 people were confirmed dead with more than 200 injured.
CCTV has also reported the repairs to the rail road is done and rail traffic has resumed.
A passenger sent the first SOS micro-blog message through Sina’s Weibo (username Yangjuan Quanyang) at 8:47pm at the time of the accident and was soon forwarded 112,000 times. Her initial message said: Read more…
A high-speed train (D301) lost drive due to lightning and while stopped, was rammed behind by another high-speed train, D3115. This took place Saturday in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. China Daily’s full coverage below: Read more…
The Dalai Lama recently met with U.S. President Obama and news of it made headlines both in China and in the West. I want to first address this point made by some that China shouldn’t make a big deal out of this meeting, because after all, China recently met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the U.S. made no objections. That is a faulty comparison, because the Dalai Lama is likely visiting the U.S. to secure his annual funding for the TGIE, and in contrast, al-Bashir is not trying to split off any portion of the U.S.. Read more…
In Oct 2008, while visiting a Confucius temple in Taiwan, Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (张铭清) of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait was shoved around and pushed down. However, I would like to point out that he is also the Dean of the school of journalism of the University of Xiamen and is on a scholarly visit with no official function. After he managed to get into the car, an overzealous attacker even climbed on the roof of the car and jumped up and down. If one want to guess what the cultural revolution looked like, this should be pretty close.
Here’s a video of the incident. You be the judge.
Russia Today interviews Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, a researcher at Center for Research for Globalization, about the illegal arming of Libyan rebels. Nazemroaya also tells first hand account of Reuters reporter lying about meeting rebel leaders to give false impression of support by the population in Tripoli.
If all facts are true, then I agree with He completely. In recent years, there have been a number of oil spills and pollution incidents in China. In the June 4 oil spill at Penglai 19-3 (where CNOOC partly owns), He Yong said that “CNOOC hid the truth from the media and the public and deleted Internet posts that exposed the accident.” The whole story came to light only after the State Oceanic Administration released an investigative report 31 days later. Read more…
Following is a side-by-side look at how Reuters and China Daily reported on the South China Sea dispute in context of the U.S.-China relations. Again, you will have to decide which media outlet’s article is of higher journalistic standard. One thing to bear in mind is that U.S. media almost always refer to the Chinese media ‘government mouthpieces’ as if they are propaganda machines. In that case, read the Reuters article with that in mind too. Which article in your mind is more a egregious and blatant propaganda piece? To be honest, I didn’t think the Reuters’ piece is that ‘bad.’ The more important point I want to make is that media is one sided. There is no such thing as ‘free’ media. We can see that when things are put side-by-side.
(Bold comments in parenthesis are mine.)Read more…
In January 24, 2011, Pew Research Center’s Project on Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) released a report (“THE U.S. MEDIA ON CHINA“) analyzing U.S. media coverage of China in the last few years, an ongoing effort started since 1997. The report asked, “When China has made news, what is it Americans are learning about?” That question was precisely answered.
In this post, I will take it further and share with you how the U.S. media narratives were as consumed by the American public. I will then share with you whether those narratives are truthful. In fact, as you will see in the PEJ report, the U.S. media reporting of China really vacillates around few dominant and recurring negative themes. And, they are not so truthful; definitely not objective.
There is however one exception, and in writing this post, I feel saddened because the topic I feel the narrative is finally correct is one of great tragedy. Read more…
(DeWang: Following is a well researched analysis of the high profile arrest in the U.S. of former IMF chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, and the subsequent falling apart of the prosecutions, sourced in its entirety from the 龙信明 BLOG.)
Another Day in the Life of the US & Israel Editorial
Editor’s Note: Some of the expressions in this article have been adapted from comments by readers, to whom I offer my thanks.
Journalism is reporting the facts. Today, I was curious how the Western media covered the new high speed rail between Shanghai and Beijing had just gone into service. I searched on Google, and the very first two articles I read had already struck me. One represents what journalism should be and the other was really quite something else. Kudos to AFP reporter, Allison Jackson, where she wrote, “Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train makes debut.” No kudos, however, to David Pierson of Los Angeles Time, who wrote, “China feeling like No. 1 with a bullet train.” The headline already sounds bitter. To some, propaganda might be too harsh a description. I simply want to put these two articles side by side and point out the nuttiness. You decide if I am too hash in my description or not.
(Bold comments in parenthesis are mine.)Read more…
Xinhua reported official policies announced by the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) where journalists cannot be blacklisted or blocked from reporting. China has over 7,000 papers and magazines in circulation, and this figure is hardly a surprise given the explosive growth in the last three decades in the country. GAPP, having oversight over news media, has absolutely made the right call. In 2008, China passed a very important transparency law (“Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information” (中华人民共和国政府信息公开条例)) requiring government departments to disclose certain information. (See my prior post, “China’s determined and long march towards rule of law.”) This assertion made by the GAPP will help foster a culture of timely government disclosure – as a way to combat rumors and disinformation as well in dealing with corruption. Note that the report also says that reporters who fabricate stories or blackmail will be punished. Read more…
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has made another round of public statements about China I thought worthwhile taking a look. As the Chinese become more affluent, I think they will care less and less. But, for now, they do. Reuters reported on Clinton’s remarks in her recent trip to Africa, and I would like to share my thoughts on those.
LUSAKA, June 11 — Africa must beware of “new colonialism” as China expands ties there and focus instead on partners able to help build economic capacity on the continent, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today.
Look, the Africans can decide for themselves what is best for them. The best thing that has happened to Africa in recent years is the fact that there is a economically significant nation who is offering them an alternative, and frankly, one that is giving them a much better deal. Read more…
In early May, China announced a smoking ban in public places and I expressed some pessimism in how fast this will truly take effect. Later, I found a reason to be optimistic. When I saw this news of Robin Li and Bill Gates agreeing to work together between the Baidu Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for “Say No to Involuntary Smoking” in China, I became ecstatic.
This was just an announcement, so I need to wait and see, and will be looking forward to the foundations work reports in the coming years.
As the Western saying goes, “All roads lead to Rome”. In a world of diversity, there is no such thing as “the only right path”. The popular conviction of the Chinese people is that our path should be based on our national conditions and rooted in reality. China’s experience cannot be exported. By the same token, not all Western experience will suit China.
Of course, this does not mean that China should stop drawing upon the useful experience of the West. We will continue to learn from all the good experience and best practices in the world that suit and help China’s development. At the same time, we will explore new forms and ways to meet the demand of China’s continued development and the development of political civilization in the world. (TANG GUOQIANG, Chinese Ambassador to Norway)
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