Gary Finnegan

The Accidental Emigrant

2011-02-16T23:26:00.000+08:00

Emigration is a major issue as Irish voters go to the polls next week. Thousands of young people are fleeing, others who planned to return are stranded overseas. This is my story.

Lehman Brothers collapsed the week we landed in Brussels.

Two weeks later the Irish government signed a blank cheque guaranteeing the debts of Irish banks. It seemed interesting but incidental to our plans. Bad news for bankers, we thought. Tough times for politicians too.

Good job we’re neither wealthy nor important. “Two coffees, a scone and a brownie please.”

We sat sharing a British broadsheet in a Belgian café staffed by mustachioed middle-aged waiters. The papers spoke of an economic earthquake but we observed it like an audience watching a grand drama unfold in high definition without realizing we were part of the play.

We were Irish expats. We were abroad by choice, having left a booming Dublin in 2007. Lap up a bit of foreign culture and head home when we’d had our fill. That was the plan. Little did we realise that the door leading back to Ireland was closing behind us.

Much has changed in the 30 months that have passed since then. A temporary spell abroad which could be wound up at a time of our choosing has morphed into an enforced economic exile, open-ended if not permanent.

We have emigrated. Accidentally.

Click here to read the rest @thejournal.ie

EU needs single voice on China

2010-02-09T16:40:00.002+08:00

EU member states are undermining Europe’s power by pursuing their own interests - and China sees it this way too

The EU’s last-minute decision to scrap plans for an SME Centre in Beijing. The office would have helped European firms to do business in China.

The reasons for the collapse of the initiative are not yet entirely clear, but one thing struck me when talking to sources in Brussels and Beijing: EU member states are uneasy about the prospect of a European enterprise centre which would work with companies trying to crack the Chinese market.

Several member states have set up national business-liaison offices in Beijing’s Chao Yang district which aim to get the biggest slice of the pie possible for their own firms. Looking at the bigger picture, one would be forgiven for wondering whether EU governments are really willing to work as one when it comes to the serious business of making money in emerging markets.

China sees EU as a bloc of three or four big players

Ask a Chinese diplomat how they deal with Europe when a political crisis breaks and you’ll find Beijing calls the embassies of France, Germany and the UK when they want something done. The EU, as an entity, is seen as a sluggish, many-headed beast. The real power is still in London, Berlin and Paris. (We could perhaps add Warsaw and Prague to that list.)

China understandably deals with those it identifies as the real power brokers on issues that matter. And the big European powers are happy enough with this. (It’s a wonder that some in the east would quite like to see an 'Asian EU'.)

Maybe the Lisbon Treaty will change this situation, given that there will be a new European External Action Service (EEAS) but we’ll have to wait and see.

Name recognition

I spent some time in China (here’s the proof) and was (naively) surprised to find that plenty of people had never heard of Ireland (’ai er lan’? Anybody?). But then again I hadn’t heard of Dongguan and its population is bigger than that of my home country.

For smaller European nations, the recognition that goes with the EU brand could be a major help to doing business in China. But that takes committment from all member states - including the big ones.

Will westerners take Chinese swine flu jab?

2009-08-19T20:18:00.002+08:00

A Chinese company has become the first to complete trials of a vaccine against the H1N1 virus.
The question is whether the rest of the world will happily inject themselves with a new Chinese-made drug. After years of safety scandals over everything from tainted blood products to lead paint and contaminate milk, Chinese standards have not enjoyed a great reputation.
However, the company in question (predictably called 'Sinovac') stands to make billions of dollars if it can steal a march on its western rivals in a bid to mass produce a swine flu vaccine this autumn.
Meanwhile, China is apparently taking the swine flu pandemic more seriously than European and the US as children prepare to return to school.
While most countries are reluctant to disrupt normal life, Beijing is taking no chances and will delay reopening of schools in some areas. Class sizes will also be cut and any student who has been in contact with someone with swine flu is being told to stay home.
After its shambolic handling of the SARS outbreak, this is clearly seen as a chance for redemption.

The following people are not dead: Rick Astley,...

2009-06-30T18:47:00.002+08:00

Rick Astley is dead. Or so said CNN's iReport earlier today.
They were followed by a herd of news websites who fell for yet another fake-celebrity-death story. Twitter was briefly offline, such was the strain of traffic and message boards filled up with sympathetic messages.
The rumour went that Astley - who has been the subject of more internet hoaxes than any other human being (1)(2)- was found dead in a Berlin hotel. CNN and its vloggers should have known better.
The episode raises questions over the current fad for news-by-tweet. Now that major news organisations are so desperate to be on top of the rumour mill, it paves the way for media anarchy.
Even the Iranian election has been covered on CNN et al. via unverifiable messages posted on Twitter and Facebook, leaving the gullable networks wide open to manipulation.
Why should we trust CNN and the rest if they are looking to us for their cues? We're totally unreliable!
The media need to pull back from this style of reporting before all credibility is lost.

Western media are abusing Tiananmen legacy

2009-06-04T19:58:00.003+08:00

First off, I should say that China's state of denial about the events that took place in June 1989 in Tiananmen Square is equally frightening and hilarious. Check out this ever-so-polite BBC reporter attempting to report from the Square today.

CNN had the same experience, with plain-clothed police using umbrellas to block the camera.

But it has also to be accepted that elements of the media and political aparatus in the West have consistently distorted the Tiananmen incident for their own purposes.

I read a shockingly biased feature in the Sunday Times magazine a few weeks ago in which Tiananmen was weaved into a narrative about how communist nations fell in 1989 and how China would have been next if it hadn't been for the crack down.

It was a neat story but not really true. The story of Tiananmen is much more complex than simply being an uprising against communism.

First of all, the protesters were an assortment of groups - students, unions, farmers - with range of grievences. Some complained of corruption, lack of transparency, inflation, inequality.

There was no single alternative political vision. And if there had been, it probably wouldn't have been "We'd like China to look like the U.S. or Europe."

Indeed, some protesters were concerned that China's policy of 'Opening up' its economy to the global market was not communist enough.

That Sunday Times piece appeared to be wistfully reminiscing about the glorious 1980s when Thatcher and Reagan sowed the seeds for the unregulated financial markets which have brought us to where we stand today. Having read plenty of China newspapers, I've come to recognise blatant propaganda when I see it - and this was blatant propaganda.

It's simplistic and untrue to say China would now be a Western-style democratic state if the students had been given what they wanted.

It's also a bit rich to hear the U.S. saying today that China has to face up to its own history. That's true, China does need to do that. But seriously, the U.S. doesn't exactly have a great record in...South America, Africa, the Middle East, S.E. Asia, slavery...and so on.

China is on a slow road to improved transparency and ending corruption by local officials. Indeed, it seems to take a step backwards ever June 4th when it overreacts by censoring the media and arresting trouble makers.

But, having spoken recently to somebody who was in Tiananmen Square in 1989, and is now part of the Party aparatus, it's clear there is a growing willingness to discuss this subject amongst the political elite.

The bottom line is that China is less likely to face up to what happened in 1989 if we in the West are dishonest about the meaning of those events.

Won't somebody please think of the...pandas?

2009-05-11T23:21:00.002+08:00

Pandas are cute. No doubt about it. But kids are surely also worth a story.

Why then are there so many stories about how pandas are faring since the devastating earquake that tore China's Sichuan province apart this time last year?

Even at the time of the quake there were articles about how pandas in Chengdu had to be rescued, along with tourists who were airlifted out of national parks in the wake of the disaster. Thousands of people were buried under collapsed schools and we were reading about bears.

Pandas, a species apparently determined to drive themselves to extinction by refusing to copulate, still seem to attract greater attention than the Chinese children killed in the massive earthquake.

Something like 90,000 people perished on May 12 last year - although the exact figure is impossible to guess at - and the story lasted about a week. Similarly, the tens of thousands of people who died in Mayanmar (Burma) last year are entirely forgotten.

China and (to an even greater extent) Mayanmar have not helped by curtailing media freedom in the area, but if you compare the coverage of the Tiananmen Square anniversary next month to the way the Sichuan earthquake is marked this week, I'm sure the coverage will be wildly disproportionate.

Not to mention the obsession with 9/11 and other atrocities which affected a fraction of the numbers killed and maimed in China on "5/12".

Obvioulsy, it's not a competition and news media are right to attach greater significance to man-made tragedies, but the way the Sichuan earthquake fell out of the news in the Western media is quite shocking.

But whatever about comparing human tragedies, worrying about cuddly-looking bears is simply disrespectful to human life.

How to pass the Lisbon referendum in Ireland

2008-12-12T17:59:00.002+08:00

Now this might seem like a risky strategy but...
It's time to go for broke if the Irish political class really wants to pass the Lisbon Treaty.
There is understandable discomfort with being asked to vote on the same thing twice (even though we did it for Nice and divorce and abortion).
So let's put two separate questions on the ballot next October.

Question 1: Ireland should ratify the Lisbon Treaty [Yes] [No]
Question 2: Ireland should withdraw from the European Union [Yes] [No]

This will focus minds on whether we really want to be in the EU and steer the debate towards the value of Europe to Ireland.
Even the anti-Lisbon groups who say they are pro-Europe (Sinn Fein, Libertas and some Green-tinged independents) will have to acknowledge that Europe has been great for Ireland. They will spend the debate trying to explain the apparent inconsistency in asking for a No vote on Q1 and a Yes vote on Q2.
The Yes side will have an easier ride because they'll be able to spend time pointing out what happened to Iceland over the past 12 months (it could have been us) and note that Sweden and Denmark are considering Euro membership in the interest of stabilizing their currency.

The number of genuinely anti-Europe people in Ireland is small. Farmers, trade unions, and probably the Church, will rally around Ireland committing to the EU and Q1 would pass by 70% while Q2 gets around 90%.

There are risks, of course. The first being that people will say the Government is trying to be too cute and that it's insulting to try to marry rejecting Lisbon to all-out withdrawal. But given how disingenuous some of the No campaigners were last time ("It'll legalize cocaine, prostitution and abortion") it's clear you can't expect every citizen to read and digest the whole document.

Oh and the other risk...well, we could find ourselves having to ask Brussels to leave the European Union at the end of October 2009.

But fear not - there is currently no legal provision for member states exiting the EU! The Reform Treaty (or 'Lisbon Treaty' to give it its common name) does contain such a clause. So if the only way we could actually have to walk away would be if we passed Lisbon but voted to withdraw...

Protests bubbling over in Chinese countryside

2008-07-17T14:29:00.003+08:00

As China gears up for the greatest show on earth in Beijing next month, tensions are boiling over in rural areas and 'small' cities.
Far from the Chinese capital, scores of major protests have erupted over local political and social issues and the government is now openly expressing its concern through official media.

Chinese newspapers are reporting that local officials will be held responsible for failure to deal with public grievances in their counties.
The latest in the series of incidents was recorded in the affluent coastal province of Zhejiang. Hundreds of migrant workers attacked and injured three policemen after an argument over registration of a migrant as a temporary resident turned violent.

Separately, in Guizhou, 30,000 people took to the streets to protest at what they claimed was a cover-up by officials after the death of a 17 year-old-girl. Her family believe she had been raped by the son of a Communist Party official but the pathology report recorded no evidence of sexual assault.
The truth is impossible to guess at but a senior official dispatched by the central government to investigate pointed the finger at local government for failing to address a series of other grievances. It was suggested that the family's outrage gathered such momentum because the public was already angry over mining disputes and cases of communities being forced to move from their town to make way for new developments.

A Professor at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, quoted in China Daily, said: "Infringement of legal rights of the public is still common ... at the grassroots level. That's why the county Party chiefs are the protagonists of this campaign."
Illegal land seizures, non-payment of salary and village officials' corruption are all cited in Chinese media as having contributed to pockets of protesters taking to the streets.
Even this admission is a sign of some progress from central government.
Of course, as Huang Qingping, a resident of Huaining county in Anhui province, is quoted as saying, the move should not be "another temporary image-projecting act".

A friend of a friend (I realize that's a rather loose secondary source!) employed by the U.S. State Department says around 10,000 'incidents' of public unrest were recorded across China last year.
The definition of 'incident' is likely to be rather broad but it surely indicates that President Hu Jintao's harmonious society is facing serious challenges as China attempts to balance rapid economic progress with growing pressure to respect human rights.

It should be stressed that these do not seem to be pro-democracy protests - at least not in any philosophical sense. People are not demanding regime change or free elections. They just want local officials to stop shitting on them.

A lid will surely be kept on such problems throughout the Olympics but there is clear evidence that Beijing will need to get a grip on problems which have erupted across its territories while central government was focussed on macrcoeconomics and China's image abroad.
If they can't continue rapid progress without trampling on their people, the harmonious society will begin to look a little precarious.

[The pic is of the Goddess of Democracy, a statue made by students during the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square. Those demonstrations were fueled not just by a demand from some for democracy, but also by rising inflation and frustration at the pace of social and economic reforms.]

€50,000 for terror whistle-blowers

2008-07-17T13:46:00.002+08:00

Here's a handy way to make 50k - devise a plot to attack the Olympics, pay €1,000 to the family of a poverty-stricken farmer in China's Muslim province of Xinjiang to take the fall, and pocket the juicy reward on offer from the Beijing government.
Anyone providing Chinese police with evidence of a major security threat to the Beijing Olympics could stand to receive up to 500,000 (€46,179.35 to be exact).
A 'threat' can be anything from a bomb, kidnapping or murder of foreigners, or 'sabotage by illegal organization such as the Falun Gong'.
The news came as police in Xingjiang claimed they had cracked five terrorism groups this year to date and ocked up 82 'suspected terrorists'.
The offer is for a limited time only so get your terror threats in by October 31.
Naturally, my plan above has its flaws - particularly the fact that it's morally abhorrent - but what will be the impact of the freakonomic incentive promised by the government?
At the very least, it will stoke up fear among the public. It may also encourage a barrage of paranoia-fueled false alarms.
I had lunch with a bunch of students this week who said they were keen to get out of Beijing and were no longer comfortable with taking the subway for fear of terrorist attacks.
Falun Gong was mentioned as a particular threat and 'could bomb or set people on fire'. I was trying to stress that that bunch of loons have no record of suicide bombings or setting others alight (as was being alleged) but there seemed little point. (FG have set themselves on fire in protest at alleged mistreatment.)
I hope I'm right in predicting that there will be no terrorist attacks in Beijing this August.
The benefits in stoking this up are:
- When nothing happens (touch wood) the government can claim great success in keeping everyone safe. Pats on back all round.
- If there are protests by pro-Tibet supporters, campaigners for rights for Muslim people in Xingjiang, or bloody foreigners harping on about China's support for Sudan's leadership, police can lock 'em up and call them a threat to Olympic security.
€50k well spent.

Beijing unleashes entire album of Olympic songs

2008-07-11T23:36:00.002+08:00

China has released not one, not two, but 30 official Olympic songs!
Apparently unwilling to opt for a single anthem, organisers have chosen a double-album worth of tunes for Olympic enthusiasts to enjoy - and the rest of us to endure.
Choosing a song is serious business. The selection process started five years ago and judges had to wade through 'tens of thousands' of entries, according to Chinese media.
I had thought 'We Are Ready' was the official Beijing Olympic theme tune but that was just a warmer-upper.
Among the other favourites are "Light the Passion, Share the Dream", "I Am a Superstar", "Forever Friends", "Beijing Welcomes You", "China See", and "China Story" and many, many more.
Anyone who wants me to pick up a copy of the album should send me $1,000 dollars and their entire record collection now...

Mao, megaphones and the mausoleum

2008-07-11T23:19:00.003+08:00

We took a trip to 'Chairman' Mao Zedong's mausoleum today in Beijing.
The deceased founder of the People's Republic of China lies in a glass box in a grandiose building in the centre of Tiananmen Square.
Literally thousands of Chinese citizens - and a handful of bemused foreigners - join long, winding queues to see Mao's body every morning (they for the day at noon).
The fact that it's free means every Chinese who visits the capital takes in the mausoleum. Many buy fake flowers from vendors inside the compound to lay near the Chairman's body.
Security is tight (you can't bring in bags or cameras) but the line moves along remarkably swiftly thanks to the seemingly endless number of officials and policemen with megaphones and an inflated sense of self-importance.
Some are uniformed, some are not. All use their megaphones even when standing two feet away from the person they are addressing.
In our case, of course, it didn't matter how loud they barked orders, we still hadn't a clue what was being said - so we just followed the crowd.
In the awe-hushed room where Mao's body lies, the queue moves faster than ever. For some reason they're not keen to allow you dawdle through or to get in any way close to the somewhat misty glass case housing the great man's body.
To my eye it was a waxwork so shoddy that Madame Toussaud's would reject it as below par and unrealistic. But nobody else seemed to care a damn...

Is China ready to say Ciao to Mao?

2008-07-10T16:29:00.003+08:00

China has issued a new 10 Yuan note to commemorate this summer's Olympic Games in Beijing.
This may prove to be a masterstroke by progressive elements within the Communist Party of China who would like to begin to move 'Chairman' Mao Zedong off stage.
Despite ascending to Dictator Heaven over 30 years ago, Mao's legacy and his position as the Father of Modern China has seemed unshakable.
However, forward-thinking Chinese are acutely aware that outside China Mao is viewed as a villain rather than a hero.
Dismantling a personality cult is a tricky business though so it may be a while before Mao's portrait is removed from its perch overlooking Tiananmen Square.
Perhaps the launch of a new note is the first step to toning down the euphoric worship of Mao and revising the conventional wisdom on his impact on the People's Republic of China.
His image can be found on every other Yuan note. Issuing a new note with, say, Deng Xiaoping on the front would incite outrage among traditionalists in China. But nobody can argue with a new note marking what Beijing hopes will be the People's Republic's finest hour.

Beijing steps up security on subway system

2008-07-08T18:24:00.003+08:00

Having rolled out its shiny new automatic ticket- checking system last month, the Beijing subway underwent a face-lift.
Signs were replaced, staff got new uniformed and chair lifts were installed to help improve accessibility to underground stations.
Next on the list: tighter security.
Since last week, passengers have been met by uniformed young guards with hand-held metal detectors and several central stations now have x-ray machines for scanning luggage.
Anyone dashing for the subway must now factor in airport-like levels of security as travellers are asked to open - and sometimes empty - the contents of their bags.
The new measures have been met with mixed reactions with some welcoming the heightened pre-Olympic security.
Others, including some local newspapers, have expressed concern that the checks slow down the transport system and that dissidents bent on making a scene at the Beijing Olympic Games will just find another way to attack the system.
The authorities say the new system is to combat terrorism and the government has already claimed that a plan by Muslim extremists from the Xinjiang Province has been thwarted.
However, given China's tendency to create jobs out of nothing for its bulging, young workforce, my guess is that this is just another way for the government to keep unemployment down and to look like they are in total control.

Welcome to paradise - beware 'lots of thieves'

2008-07-08T16:44:00.002+08:00

We arrived in Hainan full of holiday spirit and ready to explore the area.
It was after dark but we ventured outside the confines of our hotel resort in the direction of the beach, only to be met by aggressive 'drivers' keen to ferry us God-knows-where in exchange for 1 Yuan (about 10c).
A woman driving a motorbike-with-sidecar contraption screeched to a halt in front of us shouting 'yi kuai, yi kuai' (1 Yuan). As she pulled in, her two accomplices jumped out of the sidecar, ostensibly to make room for us but serving to make us a little uneasy.
Failing to shake them off our tail, and reluctant to venture into the dark isolation of the secluded seafront, we retreated to the safety of our hotel.
Back in the room, after dining in the hotel restaurant, we notice a sign on the door which reads:
"The Public Safety Bureau [police] has warned that there are lots of of bag-snatch, robbery, muggings in Sanya Bay. Please be careful."
'Lots of' them? I love when the police think warning people about these things is helpful. Could they not just police a bit better?
As it turned out, we had no further trouble but we didn't venture very far beyond the resort and never ate outside the hotel (primarily due to the lack of dining options).
The island is very much under construction and will probably be entirely different in five years' time.
However, Hainan is an island of 6 million people experiencing a rapid property boom - apparently that doesn't always go well in the long term...(ask Ireland)

2008-07-08T16:19:00.002+08:00

'Sleigh bells ring, are ye listenin'
In the lane, snow is glistenin'
A beautiful sight,
We're happy tonight.
Walkin' in a winter wonderland.'

It was 30 degrees Celsius in Hainan - known as 'China's Hawaii', so it was a little odd to be subjected to a tape of All Time Christmas Hits playing on loop in our hotel.
The resort - which was generally empty of shops, restaurants, life - has a handful of top-notch hotels catering to international travelers.
We checked into the Holiday Inn at Sanya Bay which is spotless and situated just one minute from a quiet, clean beach.
It felt like a summer holiday, until the Christmas songs started.
The very many staff at the hotel are falling over themselves to figure out what 'foreign' guests might like, but they don't always get it quite right.
On this occasion, they presumably reckoned that foreigners like Christmas, therefore they'll appreciate a bit of Santa Claus is Coming to Town - even in July!

Fish food

2008-07-08T15:55:00.003+08:00

It has been quite a year.
Over the weekend we were pondering whether we'd changed much in the year since we came to China but it's always tricky to notice gradual changes.
Then yesterday we found ourselves picking up the tread while sitting in a pool of fish which were nibbling dead skin from our bodies.
This time last year, I for one would probably not have voluntarily offered myself up as food for a hundred little fishies.
But in Hainan this weekend, that's exactly what we did. It's supposed to be a specialist spa treatment but could just be a hilariously cheap way of feeding fish by serving up mumbo jumbo to foreign guests.
Hainan is famed for these 'doctor fish' so we had to give it a try.
While I was game enough to have the 'treatment', I can't say I enjoyed it at all.
It's like having pins and needles on your whole body, but when you look down and see fish nibbling your entire body it's a little worse.
We'd paid for half an hour but I only lasted 10 minutes.

The Ultimate Warriors

2008-07-08T14:27:00.002+08:00

"The warriors were found in 1974 by a farmer digging a well. Nobody knew they were there and we now know the first Emperor of China had 8,000 terracotta soldiers buried with him so that he would have an army in the after life..."
The tour guide rattled off her spiel like a school kid reciting poetry which has been so well learned that their off-by-heart delivery betrays their lack of interest and understanding of what is being said.
Like an irritating child, I quizzed the guide with persist 'Why' questions:
"If nobody knew they ever existed, how can we be so sure about who built them and why?"
"We know from research."
"But how? Were there documents or diaries found with them?"
"Researchers tell us. Okay, let's move on..."
"Instead of being an army for the afterlife could they have been used to trick an enemy into thinking the Emperor had more troops than he really had?"
"No."
I initially had no doubt as to the authenticity of the warriors, but somehow the official guide managed to sow seeds of suspicion in my mind.
Regardless of who made them or why, the Terracotta Warriors are stunning. The most remarkable thing is that they are all different: different heights, weights, clothes, rank - each solider is a one off.
Also noteworthy is that the Emperor didn't just want an army in the afterlife, he also had scores of acrobats and musicians made from clay.
Odd that he didn't have a few fair maidens constructed to amuse the troops...

Facebook the latest victim of Chinese censor

2008-07-01T16:03:00.003+08:00

When this blog began last year it kicked off with a string of stories on censorship.
I was, back then, shocked to find so many websites blocked by the Great Firewall of China. Naive, I know.
Equally naive was my expectation that net censors would take a more liberal attitude as the Olympics approached, probably followed by a return to form once the global media moves on at the end of August.
Alas, the censors are still meddling with my quality off life.
Last week they blacklisted the Huffingtonpost. Today, I find Facebook is the latest victim of the faceless censors.
As usual, there's no explanation from the government as to why this has happened or how long it will last.
This is a particularly unusual case given that Chinese Preimer Wen Jiabao last month launched his own Facebook page which now has tens of thousands of 'supporters'.
Maybe he'll order its unblocking when he gets pissed about not being able to read his 'Funwall'.

Huffington Post blocked in China

2008-06-26T12:09:00.002+08:00

Internet news superblog the Huffington Post has been blacklisted in mainland China.
The self-styled 'internet newspaper' is no longer available and there's no telling when, if ever, it will be back.
The site was one of the few western blogs to lead with the Chinese earthquake recovery efforts, long after cable news had moved on to newer news.
However, it may have fallen foul of censors for its recent coverage of claims by U.S. politicians that their computers had been accessed by hackers in China.
Huffpost gave the issue significant coverage, also highlighting claims that U.S. officials' were concerned that the contents of a laptop may have been copied during a trip to Beijing.
As far as China is concerned, apparently the best way to respond to claims of cyberespionage is cybercensorship.

Last-minute dash to prepare for paralympics

2008-06-26T11:59:00.002+08:00

A couple of months ago I posted a piece mocking Beijing's lack of preparations for this autumn's paralympic games.
It's rare, I said, to see people in wheelchairs in Beijing and even rarer to see them catered for by wheelchair accessible ramps etc.
Since that post (but obviously not because of it), I've witnessed nothing short of a Herculean effort to make Beijing wheelchair friendly.
At the Summer Palace a few weeks back they were installing ramps and lifts to help mobility impaired patrons navigate the tourist-thronged step-fest.
Better still, this week I notice they have installed a motorized chairlift at the subway stop and built a small ramp at the entrance. The new automated ticket-checking system also features an extra-wide lane for wheelchairs.
All over the city they are getting their act together to be ready. The only wonder is what took them so long.

China's disingenuous response to hacking claim

2008-06-13T17:25:00.006+08:00

Claims that China has tried to hack into U.S. computers have met with a frighten -ingly smart-ass reply from the Beijing govern -ment.
A member of the U.S. Congress says several politicians had their laptops hacked, and a computer used by the Foreign Affairs Committee was also targeted.
On top of that, it has been alleged that Chinese officials copied the contents of a laptop brought to China by U.S. government officials.
The story goes that the Chinese are seeking details of political dissidents which are held by the Americans.
And what have the Chinese said in reply? Sigh. Here goes:
"China is still a developing country. Do you believe that our science and technology are so sophisticated that it even scares the US? Personally, I don't believe that."
That, from an official spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry in Beijing, is surely the most disingenuous piece of bullshit imaginable.
Letting on that they are but a little developing country who don't have the technology to hack into computers.
The technology? All you need are a loads of computers and a squad of techie-nerds. China has all of that in abundance.
I would be willing to believe the U.S. was being paranoid if it weren't for the shocking response from Beijing.
Be afraid.

Chinese media reverting to type

2008-06-11T17:59:00.004+08:00

One month after a massive earthquake struck China's Sichuan Province, it seems the brief period of openness from the government has passed.
China was praised for its swift relief effort and for its transparency in releasing information to the press.
Journalists and photographers covered the disaster and the relief effort around the clock. Every time the army rescued somebody from the rubble, there was a camera crew on hand to record the heroism.
They had access to officials and the public, and everyone seemed happy.
Until now.
Reports from western media say new rules now require journalists to have special permits to report from Sichuan, with some suggesting that the focus on negative stories - like why shoddily-built schools collapsed when other government buildings did not - have led the government to renew its mistrust of the media.
Today's China Daily carries a lengthy story about ethical reporting. It claims that a small magazine in Chongqing carried insensitive reports from the earthquake zone, featuring scantily clad models wearing bikinis and bloodied bandages.
They allegedly draped themselves over rubble for a feature headed 'Reborn from the Ruins'. Whether that's even true is impossible to say, but the magazine's license was revoked and its two senior editors were sacked.
Claiming that newspapers are being tacky or insensitive must be the new excuse for clamping down on the media.
With the Olympics just around the corner, the Government must be terrified that foreign journalists will expect the level of access and freedom enjoyed by media since the earthquake.
Anyone excited by the apparent change witnessed during the quake may be sorely disappointed.

Tiananmen Square - 19 Years On

2008-06-04T23:38:00.003+08:00

It was on this day in 1989 that tanks rolled into Tiananmen Square to crush protests by students and workers which had been escalating for several weeks.
Since then, China has changed. The economy has soared, the standard and reach of education has improved dramatically and, as the government's response to the Sichuan earthquake showed, the Chinese Communist Party has learned some lessons from the past.
But progress is slow.
Most Chinese people still know little of the events of June 4. The date doesn't resonate the way 9/11 does in the U.S. - most people look at you blankly if you dare to rare the issue.
My attempts to read a Guardian report online about how some of those arrested in 1989 are allegedly still in prison were thwarted. The internet connection dropped because I clicked on an article with 'China' and 'human rights' in the text.
Likewise, the screen went blank when I Googled 'Tiananmen Square'; the Wikipedia page for Tiananmen remains permanently off limits; and this blog - like millions of others - is also blacklisted.
Many nations have done far worse things to their own than the atrocities committed by China in 1989. The Germans gassed German Jews, Americans suppressed black citizens, and Australia trampled on indigenous peoples.
The pain of those events lives on but the first step in salving the wound is acknowledging the it.
Australia's apology to Aboriginal people this year was a fine example of a mature democracy that deeply regrets its own past actions. Aussie's chose to face up to their mistakes instead of attempting to erase them.
How then can China ever make progress if it denies its own past?

Great news for Big Tobacco

2008-06-02T12:35:00.002+08:00

Congratulations Big Tobacco, you absolute bastards.
There are at least 15 million Chinese children addicted to nicotine and another 25 million who say they have tried it.
This, to the evildoers in multinational Tobacco firms, just means success in an emerging market.

As we know, cigarette companies need to find young 'customers' in developing countries for a number of reasons:

1) Customer loyalty is excellent because their product is addictive so getting kids hooked early is a smart move. You might get 50 years custom from a 13 year old.
2) The problem for tobacco companies is that their customers tend to die prematurely. This means they need to look at the 13-18 year old market to replace the fall-off in the 70-75 year demographic.
3) In the so-called developed world, smoking is going out of fashion. Americans are smoking less and less, and Europeans are banning cigarettes in public places. These have to be replaced with Asians and Africans.
4) Tobacco companies are bastards.

According to the China Daily, nearly one third of Chinese children have tried a cigarette, with two thirds of those having smoked their first full cigarette by the age of 13.
Ahead of the Olympics, China has banned smoking in hotels, taxis and restaurants but don't count on the government to enforce this too rigidly.
Most teenagers have ready access to cheap cigarettes despite a supposed ban on selling to minors. The reasons were spelled out with stunning frankness by Zhang Baozhen, deputy director of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration:
"Smoking harms health but a curb on smoking would upset social stability."
And in China, social stability is king.
Curbs will be phased in over the next three decades, which is "long enough for tobacco firms to shift to new ventures and help sustain the country's tax earnings".
So Big Tobacco has 30 years to diversify its business. Maybe they could get into making cluster bombs or land mines.

Temperature rising in new cold war

2008-05-29T20:44:00.003+08:00

This is all a bit 1980s, is it not?
A Chinese woman has pleaded guilty in a U.S. court to being a spy.
Yu Sin Kang admits slipping classified U.S. military information to the Chinese, detailing arms sales from American to Taiwan.
The 33-year-old could find herself in jail for 10 years if convicted in August.
This is the fourth in a series of cases involving the leaking of sensitive information on weapons moving from the U.S. to Taiwan.
Any sign of growing military strength in Taiwan - or support for same from the U.S. - would be of significant concern to China which claims Taiwan as its territory. Taiwan, of course, considers itself to be independent.
CNN is using words like 'conspiracy', 'aggressive' and 'espionage' to describe the pattern of security breaches.
This is the worst case of communist spying since the Soviet Union, they say.
Of course, there's no mention of any of this in the Chinese media. And if there were, it would probably just be to claim CNN is an anti-China propaganda machine.
Last year there were several high profile instances of cyber-espionage involving Chinese hackers who were accused of remotely burrowing their way into government computer systems in the U.S., Britain and Germany. [I suppose they couldn't crack the Irish system.]
So the new Cold War is well and truly underway...

Sharon's Stone's Bad Instincts

2008-05-28T22:26:00.003+08:00

I bet Sharon Stone's paymasters are just delighted with her.
The 50-year Basic Instinct star has, with one outrageous comment, had her films blacklisted by Chinese cinemas.
Stone's suggestion that the 80,000 people killed by this month's earthquake in Sichuan (and the four million plus who are now homeless) somehow deserved it hasn't gone down terribly well here in China.
Referring to the alleged mistreatment of Tibetans by the Chinese government during riots in March, Stone said: "I'm not happy about the way the Chinese are treating the Tibetans because I don't think anyone should be unkind to anyone else...And then this earthquake and all this stuff happened, and then I thought, is that karma? When you're not nice that the bad things happen to you?"
Karma: Multi-storey schools collapsing on the heads of tens of thousands of children because their unelected government were apparently heavy-handed in suppressing dissidents. Charming.
Talking about human rights or media freedom in China is one thing, but describing an earthquake as 'karma' is a bit much.
Imagine suggesting the innocent people in the twin towers somehow deserved 9/11 because their government had armed Bin Laden. You'd be a pariah in the U.S.
Stone has four films in the pipeline between now and 2010 but the owners of movie theatres in China's biggest cities - Beijing, Shanghai, Chongqing, Hangzhou and Guangzhou - won't be showing them.
If you were a movie studio who had just paid Sharon Stone $15-$20 million dollars per movie, approximately how pissed off would you be by her carelessness/insensitivity/stupidity?
Ah the Chinese probably would have just downloaded the films illegally anyway...

Edit: Stone has humbly apologized via PR officers in Dior's Shanghai office. She will no longer appear in Dior's Chinese advertising campaigns (which is probably their decision rather than hers).
She also added: "I am willing to take part in the relief work of China's earthquake, and wholly devote myself to helping affected Chinese people". Get her down there to do some heavy lifting!
Jet Li says he won't make another film this year because he will spend the year rebuilding schools in Sichuan. Will Sharon Stone's definition of wholly devoting herself to relief work be along the same lines?

Earthquake changes China storyline

2008-05-23T13:33:00.002+08:00

For the millions left homeless and the tens of thousands who perished, last week's earthquake in Sichuan changed everything.
But so too has it altered the international media narrative on China.
This year, the story of 2008 in China began with a snowstorm which paralyzed the country's infrastructure and exposed the fragility of China's developing economy.
The country ground to a halt, millions of Euro were lost as production ceased, and food inflation spiked due to falling crop yields. It was a mess.
Then we had the Tibet riots, followed by the Olympic Torch Relay fiasco. Bad news seemed to be following China around the globe.
The earthquake, of course, is by far the worst news China has had to face so far. But it has shifted attitudes to China in the world media.
Take CNN for example. It drew the ire of Chinese people by its tough coverage of the Tibet issue and the torch riots. CNN has been almost completely 'positive' in reporting the earthquake, and other media are following suit.
The pictures of suffering people are enough to draw sympathy but the media are queuing up to lavish praise on China for its professional handling of the crisis and, perhaps most importantly, the openness with which it has relayed information on events in Sichuan.
The Chinese government has been helped in this regard by the stark contrast that can be drawn between their transparency and the stance of the Burmese government who have blocked international aid followed a devastating cyclone earlier this month.
So what does this mean for the Olympics?
Well, the storyline had been that China had a poor human rights record, loved censorship and suppressed its people.
Now there is universal sympathy for the plight of the Chinese people and a growing realisation that the government is not quite 'the same goons and thugs as 50 years ago' (to borrow from CNN's Jack Cafferty).
There were many who would have been hoping for chaos at the Olympics; hoping that things won't go as swimmingly as the Communist Party wanted.
Perhaps the more common wish now is that the Olympics will offer a bright spot for the Chinese who have faced a year of heartache and suffering.
It all depends on how the government handles the next chapter - the leg of the torch relay which passes through Tibet.

And, the latest craze to sweep China is...charity

2008-05-19T21:17:00.004+08:00

'50 Yuan - I gave 50 Yuan yesterday!'
'Oh right. Eh...well done.'
'And I might give more. I might give more tomorrow. I'll just put in the box when I have time!' said my excited coworker, hiding behind her hand in a vain attempt to hide her giggle. 'Have you donated yet?'

I have, as it happens. I threw a few quid into a box manned by enthusiastic students who shouting 'Bless China!' with an odd air of delight. In return for my good will, I was given a t-shirt and told I could sign my name and the amount I donated.

Is this what charity was meant to be about?

Donation boxes have popped up across Beijing since last week's devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province. And people have responded.
In fact, they really get a kick out of pushing Mao-covered pieces of paper into but red boxes.
The thrill of signing your name and thus getting recognition for your charity - a return on your investment - has people lining up to hand over their spare cash.
Charity is a big deal this week, but that may be partly because it's a relatively new phenomenon.
In the radio station where I'm currently moonlighting, we run hourly stories about people who have raised funds or handed over their life savings to help rebuild schools.
The last time an earthquake of this magnitude hit, it was 1976. This was in the years before 'opening up'; when China was still genuinely communist and nobody had a pair of red cents to rub together. Donating 'spare change' to others was not an option.
Now that middle-class Beijingers are feeling flush, they are indulging in spa treatments, posh restaurants, fancy cars and, now, philanthropy.
I plan to donate 100 Yuan this week but I think I'll do it in several trips so I get the most mileage out of it. And maybe another few t-shirts.

[p.s. The pic is of Chinese soldiers serving in the Congo. That's why they are stuffing the donation box with dollars rather than Yuan. Or perhaps it's because dollars aren't worth much these days anyway...]

CNN's sneaky apology buried by earthquake

2008-05-16T21:42:00.004+08:00

Oh that was sly.
CNN has finally apologized to China over remarks by Jack Cafferty which sparked protests in China and the U.S.
But they pulled a fast one by making a sudden u-turn on their initial refusal to offer an outright apology. The network has chosen to say sorry amid the chaos of China's earthquake relief effort.
In a move reminiscent of the British government spin doctor who declared September 11 'a good day to bury bad news', CNN President Jim Walton wrote to the Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. this week saying the network actually has great respect for China after all. And they 'apologize to the people of China' yadda yadda.
All that stuff their outspoken anchor Jack Caffery said about Beijing's government being 'goons and thugs' was just a big misunderstanding.
CNN had previously stood firm in the face of China's overreaction to Cafferty's off-the-cuff slur - despite its executives being summoned to the Foreign Ministry to explain why it was being mean to little old China.
The news channel earlier expressed 'regret' but that was dismissed as half-arsed by the Chinese who wanted to see groveling and/or Cafferty's head on a big stick in Tiananmen Square.
Cafferty's remarks were pretty stupid and ill-informed. His assertion that China is run by 'the same thugs' as 50 years ago says more about his ignorance of modern China than anything else. His regular rants-of-the-day often provoke debate or a roll of the eyes - but viewers usually get mildly provoked/entertained/angered and then they move on.
Not this time. The Chinese people took it personally and granted Cafferty the publicity he craves. There was a song ('Don't be too CNN') a website ('anti-cnn.com') and many front page headlines demanding an apology.
I didn't agree with Cafferty but respected CNN's stance that this was not a slight against 1.3 billion people and, anyway, it's a question of free speech. Tough.
Even if they really felt the need to apologize, they could have done it immediately rather than allow the fiasco to drag on.
But instead, they took the low road and said sorry when nobody was listening - because tens of thousands of people were buried under the rubble of their own homes.
The apology barely made it into China Daily, there's no mention on CNN itself, and a couple of Indian websites picked it up, as did a Singapore paper. The New York Times is the only heavyweight western media outlet to even notice the apology and they gave it one paragraph.
And, of course, a few bloggers will give it a mention...

Full apology available here: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-05/15/content_6688594.htm

China grappling with quake, virus and Olympic preparations

2008-05-14T19:15:00.004+08:00

There's no good time to face a colossal earthquake but the timing of this week's disaster in the Sichuan province could hardly be worse.

China now finds itself facing three major challenges over the coming months: They must grapple with the aftermath of a deadly earthquake, continue the battle against the EV71 virus ('hand, foot and mouth disease'), while racing against the clock to complete preparations for the Olympic Games.

As the quake death toll nears 20,000 and threatens to continue soaring, rescue work continues to be undone by harsh weather which is causing mudslides and hampering the delivery of aid.
The face a monumental task.
Consider the devastation caused in New York in 2001 when the Twin Towers fell killing 3,000 people. Now think of several inaccessible cities where, in some cases, 80% of buildings are said to have been razed to the ground.
The death toll is likely to be ten times greater than 911 by the weekend and the carnage that must be picked through and then eventually cleaned up covers eight, huge Chinese provinces. It's a nightmare.

Meanwhile, there are other battles to fight.
Up until Tuesday, China was gripped by a national campaign against hand, foot and mouth disease which has spread across the country.
The virus has already killed over 40 children and, today, the first death in Beijing was recorded. A total of 27,500 children are currently infected but it could get a lot worse.
The peak season for the virus is expected to be June when warmer weather facilitates the spread of the disease.
Naturally, the deadly outbreak has taken a backseat while the central government attempts to lead rescue work in Sichuan.

One of the problems for the Beijing government is its need to control of everything that happens in its vast territory.
They want to appear to be directly handling the outbreak of the virus; they have dispatched the Premier, Wen Jiabao to direct operations at the site of the earthquake; and the Olympic preparations are being handled at the highest level.

For a nation of 1.3 billion people spread across a truly sprawling land mass, it might be time to delegate some tasks to local leaders and people on the ground.
The top-down control freakery which has ruled China for 60 years might not be best suited to fight a battle on three fronts.

Conquering Mount Qomolangma - what's in a name?

2008-05-08T14:05:00.004+08:00

How impressed would you be if somebody told you they'd climbed Mount Qomo- langma?
It might not sounds familiar to the Western ear, but Qomolangma is, in fact, the world's highest mountain.
Qomolangma is Mount Everest.
Perhaps you are wiser than I and would not have been perplexed by today's headlines proclaiming the Olympic torch is bound for Mt Qomolangma. But to me, it was all a bit confusing. It didn't get all that much clearer after I looked into it a bit more deeply.
The Tibetan name for Mount Everest is Chomolungma or Qomolangma which means 'Saint Mother'.
English explorers in the 1800s recorded the local name of the massive mountain (which spans the Nepal/Tibet border) as Deodungha, or 'Holy Mountain'. It was in 1865 that the Royal Geographical Society gave it the name Mount Everest.
Then, in the 1960s, the Government of Nepal gave the mountain a brand new official Nepali name: Sagarmatha which means 'Goddess of the Sky'. (Thank you Wikipedia)
The continued name changes are rooted in all sorts of complicated stuff like China's claim over Tibet, Nepal's desire for reunification, Britain's colonial exploits in India, and the variety of local dialects spoken by people in the villages near the foot of the big hill.
The latest twist came in 2002 that the Chinese People's Daily newspaper published an article making a case against the continued use of the English name for the mountain in the Western world, insisting that it should be referred to by its Tibetan name: Qomolangma.
This name, they said, preceded the English name and was marked on a Chinese map more than 280 years ago.
And there was I thinking it had always been called Everest.
So, that's it. We're going back to the oldest recorded names we can think of.
That's why I'm changing the name of my book to: Peking for Beginners: a Hibernian in the Middle Kingdom.

Rebranding protest marches as 'group walks'

2008-05-06T23:12:00.002+08:00

When is a protest march not a protest march? When it's in China, of course.
It appears 200 people joined a march to protest against the construction of two industrial plans in Chengdu this week.
Locals fear the proposed new ethylene plant and oil refinery will bring further environmental pollution, adding toxins to the air and water of Chengdu - home of the giant panda.
Or at lest that's how it might have been written up in a Western newspaper.
Here, the state media say local residents held a 'group walk' on Sunday afternoon to 'express concerns over the environmental impact' the two plants may have on their city.
It was, say the papers, 'a two-hour leisurely walk from Nine-Hole Bridge to Wangjiang Pavilion in the eastern part of the city'.
China Daily quotes a local driver as saying that the walkers did not carry posters, nor did they shout slogans. So it definitely wasn't a protest, right?
Officials at the information office of the Chengdu municipal government declined to comment on the walk, and officials at the city police department said they had not heard of it.
So there are protests taking place in China over issues that affect people's lives - it's just that they can't call them protests.
It might seem like weak coverage by the national press, but at least they covered it. That, odd though it may seem, is a sign of progress.

New virus a big test for China

2008-05-05T14:35:00.002+08:00

The new virus spreading around China's Anhui province is a huge challenge to the Beijing government on two fronts.
First, it's a test of its ability to handle a serious threat to public health.
Second, the way it is handled will tell a lot about progress and openness in China.
The virus has already killed 24 young children and infected around 5,000 more. Enterovirus 71, which is often referred to as hand, foot and mouth disease is expected to peak in the summer as weather hots up.
The government has closed nurseries in Fuyang and is spraying disinfectant around houses in rural areas.
With experience from SARS and bird flu, as well as the additional determination to be seen to act decisively ahead of the Beijing Olympics, it's reasonable to expect the practical side of containing the virus to be handed well.
But the memory of attempted cover-ups and denials when SARS hit are still fresh.
The Chinese authorities say the WHO was informed of the problem with E71 within 24 hours of diagnosis.
Continued transparency and open communication with local people at risk of infection will reveal how far China has come since 2003.

An early contender for headline of the month

2008-05-02T21:48:00.003+08:00

Every day brings a fresh batch of jarring headlines from the Chinese press and today was no different.
A story from the state-run Xinhua news agency, carried by China Daily is headlined:

"Rioters in Lhasa unrest receive fair trial"

Why is that so remarkable? Isn't that what's supposed to happen? With Xinhua, there's always a sense that they are trying to get their retaliation in first; that they are desperate to deny something before anyone has thought to level an accusation.

On this occasion, I presume they foresee complaints about the trial, not to mention the severity of the sentences handed down for taking part in the riots in which 18 civilians were reportedly killed. There is no mention from Xinhua of how many monks died during the unrest.

While nobody was charged with murder, 30 people were convicted of arson, robbery, creating a disturbance and "assembling to assault state organs" (just consider the breadth of that phrase for half a second). Three were sentenced to life.

Just in case you were wondering whether anyone was tortured or had confessions beaten out of them, you can stop thinking that right now.

We know everything was done by the book because a court-appointed lawyer casually ignored confidentiality norms by telling reporters:
"The defendant Yexe told me that the police did not extort or torture him for a confession. His jail term was shorter than I expected."
His client got 12 years for disturbing the peace.

Anti-France protests erupt across China

2008-05-01T17:18:00.005+08:00

Seven people have been arrested in China following protests at French super- market chain Carrefour.
Demonstrators targeted Carrefour outlets in Beijing, Changsha Fuzhou, Chongqing and Shenyang but no violence was reported.
The Associated Press says one man ran around with a sign that read "Protest Carrefour, Protest CNN" as about 200 bystanders cheered.
Browse posting from April if this all seems utterly bizarre. In summary, CNN and France are being targeted for alleged anti-Chinese bias following the unrest in Tibet.
The funny thing is that I was roaming through a packed Carrefour in Beijing's Zhongguancun area on Saturday afternoon. It was packed.
I was passing through with some Chinese friends on the way to a shopping mall and we were all surprised by the frenzy of customers snapping up bargains.
The shop had launched a major sale in an effort to attract customers in the face of ongoing negative publicity. They also issued staff with a new uniform which reads 'Beijing 2008'.
Whatever about the patriotic pandering, the fact is that Chinese people are a pragmatic bunch and nationalism takes a back seat when there's cooking oil on sale at half price.

Olympic Countdown: 100 Days To Go

2008-04-30T21:45:00.002+08:00

Just 100 days remain before the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.
On the 8th of the 8th, 2008 (at eight past eight, of course), the Games will begin and we'll know a lot more about the future of world affairs than we do today.
These three months are arguably the most important in the history of modern China's relationship with the world.
I visited the stadium this weekend and, although you can't get into it, the facilities and the areas surrounding it look amazing. But that's not what matters most.
China's handling of the inevitable protests from Tibetan separatists, agitation from Taiwan, and criticism from external human rights groups will be telling.
Is the Beijing government capable of allowing a controlled, non-violent protest in Tiananmen Square?
Will the authorities be comfortable with lifting media censorship (permanently)?
Can the Taiwan issue be solved diplomatically rather than with the threat of military intervention?
Will China be mature enough to ignore ill-informed insults and accept fair criticism?
Stay tuned - it's going to be interesting...

Beijing needs PR advice to compete with media savvy Dalai Lama

2008-04-30T21:27:00.004+08:00

Headlines like 'Dalai Lama is spewing lies' do little to aid China's efforts to communicate with the world.
Today's China Daily has a lash at the Dalai Lama who Beijing accuses of presenting unquestioning the Western audiences with unsubstantiated claims about events in Tibet.
The article is spot on in highlighting the Dalai Lama's skill in delivering his message to the media. He is, it says, adept at rallying support behind his cause.
But the author fails to conclude that China should take a leaf out of the Dalai Lama's book when it come to public relations.
Like it or not, if you want to communicate through media channels, you have to play by their rules. If you are concerned with influencing Western minds, you need to understand their media.
Outsiders see a smiling old monk complaining of suppression by an angry authoritarian communist (a loaded term in the West) regime with a dubious history.
Intemperate rants about this nice old geezer 'spewing lies' or being 'a wolf' just strengthen the image of China as a bully and allows the violent rioters to be painted as heroes.
Beijing's anger needs to be focused on communicating effectively. They need an affable figurehead who speaks in terms that the target audience understands.
This will have to be matched with actions such as allowing freer access to foreign media covering Tibet. [The province reopens tomorrow, having been a no-go area for over a month.]

The full article is worth a look:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-04/30/content_6655137.htm

On the general decency of ordinary Chinese people

2008-04-29T21:47:00.002+08:00

Amid all the negativity doing the rounds online about Tibet, the Olympics and western media bias (some of which has found its way onto these pages), it seems fair to remind those who have never been here that Chinese people are fundamentally decent.
Maybe it's a pity that I feel it necessary to say so, but at every turn in China, there's somebody looking to make a good impression on foreigners. This concern for what outsiders think may partly explain the sensitive reaction to external criticism, but the upside is Chinese people desperately want to do you favours!
Today, I remarked that I'd had a bit of a headache when I woke up this morning. Within half an hour, I was presented with (a) a recipe for a simple herbal treatment (b) an invitation to go to a student's dorm to collect a special tea used for curing common ailments and (c) a bag of freshly bought ginger and an unopened bag of brown sugar - another headache remedy.
And it's not just in Beijing. In Qingdao, a local woman escorted us to our hotel - even though it was a mile out of her way - and then gave us her spare umbrella as a welcoming gesture. In Jinan, a young school student helped us navigate the chaotic transport depot, ensuring that we got on the right bus to Tai'an. He later emailed me to ask if everything worked out alright.
As I've said before, I don't believe the Olympics are truly apolitical, but when all the chatter subsides and the Games begin, the Chinese will be excellent hosts.

Last of the fake designer bags (and toothpaste)

2008-04-29T12:39:00.002+08:00

Roll up, roll up for the last of the knock-off Louis Vuitton suitcases, D&G shades, Calvin Klein boxers. The glory days of fake Chinese goods is coming to an end. Or so they say...
China is stepping up efforts to curb intellectual copyright infringement, under pressure from big business to protect their brand names.
Last year, Chinese customs officials seized more than 333 million pirated items with a total value of $63 million.
The goods were found in the US, Uk, Japan, France, Greece, Germany, Holland and, of course, China. No mention of Ireland but officials from An Post have recently highlighted the large volume of fakes being sent through the post.
Slightly bizarrely, the item singled out for special mention in media reports is the 300,000 units of counterfeit toothpaste confiscated by customs in 2007. The paste was branded with Unilever logos but was churned out in a factory in central China.
Other items listed by officials include: clothing, footwear, headgear, toys, bags, electronics and auto parts.
No mention of DVDs - thank God.

China agrees to talks with "wolf in monk's robes"

2008-04-25T17:12:00.004+08:00

The Beijing government is to meet with represent- atives of the Dalai Lama, CNN reports - although you can't believe anything those bastards say (see below).
China used the harshest language available to slag the smiling holy man following violence in Tibet. Amongst many, many other things, they referred to him as "a wolf in monk's robes" and accused him of masterminding the protests.
In a carefully worded statement, Beijing said they would accept repeated requests for talks, making it clear that it was the Dalai side who came to them.
And, just in case Tibetan separatists get the wrong impression, a Chinese official is quoted as saying it is hoped the Dalai Lama will make "credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks."
Note the last clause: is the implication that talks are conditional on the Dalai Lama admitting to plotting and sabotage?
I see three possible scenarios here:
a) China wants to appear open to talks but will set preconditions which force the Tibetan side to turn down the offer of dialogue.
b) China will bring the Dalai Lama to the table on his knees, making him denounce separatism and support the Olympics (both of which he has more or less done in the past). This would send militant young Tibetan rebels over the edge leading them to look for a new political figurehead and/or launch a new wave of violence which the Dalai Lama has said would be enough to make him quit. Either way, the Tibetans would be divided and conquered.
c) China and Tibet will reach a compromise which respects the will of all people in Tibet and addresses inequality between China's eastern and western provinces.

I'm hoping for (c) but betting on a bit of (a) followed by plenty of (b).

Just 2% of Chinese believe foreign media - 86% reckon state media tells truth

2008-04-24T21:39:00.004+08:00

A new opinion poll reveals just a tiny fraction of Chinese people trust non-Chinese media, while almost 60% registered a deep disliking for France.
The survey was taken in the wake of a month of bad international press for China, notably following unrest in Tibet and the chaotic Olympic Torch Relay.
Of the 905 people surveyed (an infinitesimal proportion of China's 1.3 billion), 2% said they had faith in foreign media, while 86% believe Chinese news sources.
The questions asked of respondents - and the timing of the survey - suggest some in China are as happy as anyone to stoke nationalist sentiment and wedge open a divide between east and west.
50% said what the words and deeds of the Dalai Lama "deepened their repugnance toward him". Not exactly neutral language.
Respondents said they are reacting to perceived negative sentiment towards China by starting petitions, holding protests, blogging and boycotting French goods.
France came in for further pummeling in the questionnaire.
Having been the second most popular country ("second to the Motherland") in 2003, France has fallen out of favour with 60% registering "a growing dislike for France". I don't suppose it's growing the longer this stuff stays in the news, is it?
State media speaks of 'simmering resentment' towards France following what it calls hostile gestures, including disruptions to the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris.
All the French really did was fail to control Tibetan protesters, and then fail to condemn them. And then failed to get really excited about the Olympics.
Protesting is a way of life in France. They can't stop people taking to the streets, regardless of whether they agree with their cause.
However, France isn't the only nation falling in popularity. Canada, Britain and Germany also dropped in the rating - no mention of Ireland though. We're still insignificant enough not to feature at all, despite the best efforts of Minister Gormley.
The survey is statistically meaningless but still made the top of the news in China. It's also full of contradictions which pass without mention in the press here.
For example, 90% oppose boycotts and protests held overseas. But 39% are boycotting French goods and 21% are taking part in spontaneous protests in public places.

In summary:
Chinese media - good
Foreign media - bad
Chinese boycotts - good
Foreign boycotts - bad
Chinese protests - good
Foreign protests - bad

Paris back in Beijing's bad books...

2008-04-23T22:48:00.002+08:00

Just when France appeared to be weaseling its way out diplomatic trouble with China, they've gone and landed themselves in the merde again. Yesterday, Nicolas Sarkozy invited Chinese athlete Jin Jing back to Paris to make amends for how she was treated during protests at the Olympic Torch Relay.
Today, the mayor of Paris decided to offer honorary citizenship to the Dalai Lama. Sacre blue!
For a brief spell yesterday evening, plans to boycott French companies and hold protests outside Carrefour on May 1 were quite likely being reconsidered.
Now the Paris city council, led by Mayor Bertrand Delanoe's Socialists and the Green Party, have given China the two fingers - much to the despair of Sarkozy's chums in the conservative UMP which voted against the motion.
Beijing called this 'another grave provocation'.
However, the boycott of Carrefour is likely to hurt China as much as France, given that 99% of its employees here are Chinese and 95% of its products are made locally.
China has been harping on for weeks about how boycotts don't work. Perhaps that only applies to the Olympics...

Beijing lawyers sue CNN for a whopping Y100 (€9.02)

2008-04-23T22:28:00.004+08:00

It's getting ugly out there, as Jack Cafferty would say.
Cafferty and CNN's innate ability to annoy China has already led to criticism, protests and executives from the US network being summoned to a meeting by the Beijing government.
Now, the fight is moving to the courts.
Lawyers upset by Cafferty's reference to 'the Chinese' as 'goons and thugs' say CNN has harmed the their reputation. 14 aggrieved legal eagles have now filed a lawsuit with the Chaoyang Court in Beijing.
Beijing Huanzhong & Partners, a Beijing-based law firm, demand that CNN and Cafferty cease what they termed 'harmful acts', issue a public apology and pay each of them 100 yuan (€9.02) in compensation for mental distress.
Presumably the level of distress wasn't too severe or they'd be asking for a full €10. Of course, they will claim that the low level of the compensation demanded proves this is a point of principle rather than cash.
A cynic might suggest the law firm will make a few quid from the court case just by getting their name spread across the newspapers for free.
Not to mention all the publicity generated online. (Damn it! I've fallen into their trap).
Of course, CNN are probably doing alright out of it on the publicity front too. Maybe they've set the whole thing up as a PR stunt...

Nicolas Sarkozy, PR genius!

2008-04-22T11:44:00.004+08:00

French President Nicolas Sarkozy is proving himself a master of the grand public relations gesture.
Sarkozy has apologised to Chinese athlete Jin Jing who was manhandled by pro-Tibet protesters during the Paris leg of the Olympic Torch Relay.
Jin Jing, who is wheelchair-bound, has become a national hero in China for the way in which she protected the flame.
The incident sparked outrage across China, not least because it received minimal coverage in western media.
France has been singled out for special mention by Chinese protesters following the incident. There was also considerable annoyance that Sarkozy - who had been feted in Beijing last November and went home with €30 billion worth of contracts for French companies - had failed to commit to attending the Olympic opening ceremony.
This led to burnings of Le Tricolore and plans to boycott French goods. A boycott and rally are currently planned outside branches of Carrefour on May 1.
Sarkozy invited Jin Jing back to Paris "to make up for the pain you have suffered"."I would like to express to you my shock at the way you were attacked in Paris on April 7 when you were holding the Olympic flame. You showed outstanding courage, which honors you, and your country," Sarkozy was quoted as saying in the letter.
"To make up for the pain you have suffered, I sincerely invite you to France in the near future as my friend and a friend of the French people."
"What happened in Paris has engendered a feeling of bitterness in your country. I want to assure you that the incidents that were brought about by a few people on that sad day don't reflect the feelings of my fellow countrymen for the Chinese people," the letter says.
"Bitter"? Isn't that the word that got Barack Obama into a world of trouble when he used it to describe the people of Pennsylvania?
Hopefully it'll work better for Nicolas.

Protesters to Cafferty: 'Do you eat with that mouth?'

2008-04-21T18:20:00.002+08:00

The latest installment in the battle between CNN and 1.3 billion people took place on Sunset Boulevard this weekend.
Shouting 'liar' and 'sack Cafferty', the Chinese community in Los Angeles demonstrated outside the offices of CNN as the furore continues over remarks by outspoken contributor Jack Cafferty last week.
Cafferty referred to the Chinese as 'goons' and 'thugs', leading Beijing to summon CNN executives to a meeting at the Foreign Ministry.
The LA Times reports that CNN has continued to stress that Cafferty's comments were aimed at elements of the Beijing government rather than at the Chinese people, but that didn't seem to wash with those calling for his head.
Interestingly, the Times quotes a 39-year-old engineer as saying China is vastly different to the image being spun by CNN (who in my view were guilty of ignorance rather than bias).
The Chinese engineer said the last protest he attended was 19 years ago in Beijing - the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989!

Maoists surge to power promising to help the poor

2008-04-21T12:41:00.005+08:00

It's April 2008 and Maoist rebels have just swept into govern- ment, backed by a jaded and desperate- ly poor population.
But today, for once, I'm not talking about China for it is Nepal where Maoists now find themselves with political power.
This is a little ironic coming, as it does, at a time when Mao's ideology fades into history in China. Mao's communist China is still run by his party, but its global outlook would be unrecognisable to the late Chairman.
He might turn in his grave (or mausoleum, as the case may be) if he saw the consumer culture that has gripped the 'peasants' who helped him to power.
But at lest he can look to Nepal as a nation where his name is associated with the future instead of the past.

The People's Republic of.....Clondalkin

2008-04-20T13:11:00.005+08:00

Is there something going on in Dublin that nobody's telling me?
According to Google Analytics - which reports how many people viewed the blog and where these bored individuals live - Dublin appears to be disintegrating.
The map shows a large blob for Dublin but there are two smaller dots within the city which are singled out for special mention.
The first one appeared last week, telling me there had been five visits from Clondalkin. Has there been an uprising? Have the people of Clondalkin formed their own state within a state - like Monaco or The Vatican?
A second independent dot appeared yesterday: Dun Laoghaire. I always knew they had notions about themselves out that direction. I bet talk of autonomy from Dublin has been dominating the yacht clubs for years.
Of course, I know people in plenty of other large Dublin suburbs have logged on, but they are lumped in together under the 'Dublin' category.
Chinese readers (which are the second largest group, by the way) will be familiar with this type of separatist uprising given their experience of Tibet. Any advice?
Is it only a matter of time before there are people marching down O'Connell Street with giant placards:
"Free Clondalkin! Free Clondalkin!"

CNN executives summoned to Beijing after failure to aplogise

2008-04-18T20:03:00.005+08:00

A worrying develop- ment: Beijing- based executives from CNN were called to a meeting at the Chinese Foreign Ministry on Wednesday in the wake of the ongoing debacle that has followed remarks by opinionated contributor Jack Cafferty.
Cafferty last week referred to the Chinese government as 'goons and thugs', which hasn't gone down terribly well here. See previous posts for more on how the Chinese media has reacted.
At this point I'd be quite concerned if I worked for CNN, especially if I were Chinese.
Whatever about forum members and bloggers (who are just people with nothing better than do but spout on about the topic du jour) it is a little concerning that the political establishment would summon a foreign news organisation to answer for its content.
Perhaps it's just as worrying that such a powerful news organisation felt they had to attend.
According to the government news agency, Xinhua, CNN were told to apologise for 'slander', although if they had indeed groveled that probably would have been mentioned in the official statement from Xinhua.
Journalists don't have the privilege to "rail against anybody or any government", the government said.
Really? I thought railing against governments - especially your own - was a basic function of journalism. My mistake.
This explains the absence of criticism on CCTV.
CNN had previously moved to clarify the issue with the usual line about the views of their contributors not representing the organisation yadda yadda. They also apologised to anyone who interpreted the comments as a slight on Chinese people.
Of course, CNN's statement didn't cut it in Beijing, with some continuing to accuse the network of racism.
A commentator at People's Daily said Cafferty's words reminded him of the US Chinese Exclusion Act which discriminated against labourers from China.
He must be very, very old. That Act was passed in 1882 (and was abolished in 1943).

Is Beijing ready for the Paralympic Games?

2008-04-18T17:49:00.005+08:00

An exhausted-
looking labourer with a faint moustache stood leaning against a wall admiring his own handiwork.
He had just finished pouring cement into a cast built around steps up to a subway station on Beijing's west side. Now there is a handy ramp up what used to be a two-step climb to the station entrance.
He was, I presumed, beginning the process of making Beijing's subway system wheelchair accessible.
That was ten days ago. Since then, nothing has happened.
There are 66 steps from ground level to the door of the train - yes, I counted them.
It caused me to pause a moment and rack my brain in an effort to remember the last time I saw somebody in a wheelchair in China. I still can't think when it was and I've been here almost a year.
There are plenty of 'developed' cities with hopeless accessibility standards on the public transport system but Beijing deserves special attention because it will host the Paralympic Games after the Olympics this year.
Perhaps the paralympic athletes will be well looked after and might be spared the overcrowded buses and inaccessible subway.
But what about other people in wheelchairs? How do they get around Beijing and, more importantly - where on earth are they?!
[NB The pic to the right was not taken in Beijing]

China's new chart-topper: 'Don't be too CNN'

2008-04-18T14:23:00.005+08:00

A new song and music video is spreading across the net like wildfire in China.
The title reflects growing outrage at what Chinese people see as a propaganda war waged by Western media.
This might seem a little rich given how tightly the media is controlled in China but we'll leave that for another day.
Today, let's just enjoy the patriotic new hit which (although it's in Chinese) apparently includes the lines:
"Why do you rack your brains in trying to turn black into white? Don't be too CNN. CNN solemnly swears that everything on it is the truth, but I've gradually discovered this is actually a deception."
The video features of riots in Lhasa and references to the disrupted Olympic Torch relay in Paris.
You can view it here or visit video.sina.com.cn and search for it by name.
http://you.video.sina.com.cn/pg/topicdetail/topicPlay.php?tid=1621967&uid=1268994594#12400584

China fears West is waging 'cold war'

2008-04-18T13:55:00.004+08:00

There's growing tension in China amid fears that the West is launching a new 'cold war' on Beijing.
Some bloggers are even speculating about intervention to 'free' Tibet.
It's all a little hysterical but there's no doubt that China feels like the world is against it.
The China Daily quotes a German newspapers column in which the author (a former German politician) claims the West has a history of lurching from cold war to hot war to cold war, as if there is an insatiable need for an enemy.
The latest target, it is suggested, is China.
My old favourite http://www.anti-cnn.com/ has a video showing some truly horrific scenes from the conflict in Iraq, while making the point that the invasion did nothing for democracy or freedom. Where next, they ask - Tibet?
It may sound paranoid to outsiders but the sense of being victims - the siege mentality - cannot be underestimated.

China freaked with CNN - again

2008-04-16T17:28:00.003+08:00

The Chinese are up in arms again over an alleged smear by CNN.
Not for the first time, Beijing feels the western media is being harsh and agressive with China.
You might recall reading here about the popular Chinese website 'anti-CNN.com' which slates the American news network (and several other media outlets) for what China sees as anti-Beijing bias. I had been aware of the site for a while but a student showed it to me over the weekend, confirming that it had won a large and dedicated following.
This time, the cause of their ire is CNN presenter Jack Cafferty (pictured) who said: "The Chinese are basically the same bunch of goons and thugs they have been in the past 50 years."
He went on to slag off Chinese goods (or "junk", to use Cafferty's woyds), leading the China Daily newspaper to run an editorial blasting him as an amateur and claiming he is sickened by China's growing power.
The paper implied Cafferty - who is known for his opinionated and provocative style - was racist and that CNN is out of step with US ideals of respect for diversity.
The backlash in the Chinese blogosphere is well and truly on.
Although Cafferty himself has been a critic of the war, some Chinese are hitting back by suggesting that if it's "goons and thugs" you're looking for, the current White House is as good a place to start as any.
That's a tricky point to argue against!

China snapping up chunks of oil giants

2008-04-15T20:03:00.002+08:00

China's sovereign wealth fund has spent about £1 billion sterling on shares in oil giant GP, The Guardian reports.
Last month China - thanks to being overburdened with spare cash - splashed another £1 billion sterling on a stake in French oil firm Total.
Given that China was quick to point to the economic consequences of rubbing them up the wrong way during the minor diplomatic spat with Ireland this week, and the much bigger falling out with France, it'll be interesting to see how they use their newfound economic might.
The British government has already expressed mild unease over the idea of foreign countries controlling energy companies. As noted previously, China and the oil-rich middle eastern nations will soon own us all.
On a related note, I thought I'd include the graph above which shows who has oil - and who doesn't. It's skewed to represent the amount of oil each country has.
As you can see, Europe is bunched. China is relatively small given its actual size, which is probably why they are upping their control of oil in Africa and buying into international energy giants.

China is greatest nation on earth...

2008-04-15T19:49:00.003+08:00

...when it comes to pollution the planet.
New estimates to be published next month say China is now the world's biggest polluter.
Using data from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency, researchers in California reckon China has already overtaken the US in pumping more greenhouses gases into the atmosphere.
China's enormous Inner Mongolian province tops the league table for the region producing the most carbon dioxide, followed by Shanghai.
Tibet is bottom of the league which you can read as meaning it is the least well developed part of China or that its beautiful unspoilt plains are being preserved.
Interestingly, Beijing is the only area to record a significant decrease in air pollution.
The news comes as it was announced that construction work in Beijing, Shandong, Tianjin and other surrounding cities will grind to a halt in June, two months ahead of the Olympic Games.
Then it'll be full speed ahead again come September...

Chinese community protest in Dublin

2008-04-14T10:35:00.002+08:00

The Chinese community in Dublin took to the streets on Saturday in support of the Beijing Olympics.
Carrying Chinese and Irish flags, they gathered around the GPO in an effort to counterbalance what they see as an anti-Chinese bias in the West.
However, they are frustrated that the Irish media did not cover the event. You'd think the papers would enjoy a bit of conflict (of opinion), especially given that it looked like quite a large group. Perhaps they'll cover it in Monday's papers in light of John Gormley's remarks on Saturday night.
Full discussion on http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055274034&page=1

[Thanks to the Boards.ie user 'Thirdfox' who posted the pic.]

Panic-stricken Ahern is wrong - Gormley's Tibet remark was no 'slip of the tongue'

2008-04-13T21:26:00.004+08:00

Oh dear. Claims by Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern that his government colleague John Gormley's reference to Tibet as a country was 'a slip of the tongue' appear to be...what's the word...bullshit.
Environment Minister John Gormley told the Green Party conference on Saturday that Tibet was a country which had been suppressed and exploited, leading the Chinese Ambassador to Ireland to storm out. Now Ahern is scrambling to defuse the diplomatic row.
Whatever about sitting through a (very necessary) lecture on human rights, the Chinese flip the lid at suggestions that Tibet is anything other than one of its Provinces.
Dermot Ahern, pictured right, slapping Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on the arse, said he had discussed Gormley's speech with him on Friday - presumably with a view to avoiding precisely this kind of embarrassment - and it had been agreed that the Green leader could urge the Reds to enter talks with the Dalai Lama.
However, the Greens kindly posted Gormley's speech on their website, revealing that the line which suggests that Tibet is a country was, in fact, part of the original text, rather than an off-the-cuff remark:
"Respect for human rights must extend to all cultures and countries. One country which has been exploited and suppressed and suffered for far too long is Tibet. We condemn unequivocally the flagrant human rights abuses by the Chinese government and call on the Chinese government to enter dialogue with the Dalai Lama."
Ahern bent over backwards not to upset the Chinese during an interview on Prime Time during the week and will be desperate to kiss and make up with the sensitive Chinese, lest Gormley's remarks damage diplomatic (read trade) relations.
Liu Biwei, the Chinese Ambassador stormed out of the Green Party meeting, pointedly saying he hoped the economic relationship between China and Ireland could go on.
Be afraid, be very afraid.

Irish Minister upsets Chinese Ambassador

2008-04-13T18:54:00.005+08:00

The Chinese Ambassador to Ireland has stormed out of the Green Party conference in Dundalk after an Irish government minister appeared to suggest that Tibet was a country.
It's not yet clear whether this was an accidental slip of the tongue or a deliberate political affront.
Mr Liu Biwei had been invited to attend and participate in the weekend conference but walked out last night during a speech by Irish Green Party Leader and Environment Minister, John Gormley.
Gormley was speaking about human rights and urged China to engage with the Dalai Lama to prevent further unrest.
According to RTE, he added that one country which has been exploited and suppressed and suffered for far too long is Tibet.
Needless to say, the Chinese representative took this as a snub and emphasized that 200 countries have recognised Tibet as Chinese territory.
I'm pretty sure that Ireland's official position is that Tibet is part of China, so Gormley shouldn't expect a warm reception from his government colleague Dermot Ahern at the Dept of Foreign Affairs who will have to clean up the mess.
In an ominous and thinly veiled threat that the fallout from the perceived snub would be a strain on business relations between China and Ireland, Liu Biwei said:
'I hope our relations with Ireland, including economic relations, can go on.'
No doubt there'll be a groveling apology by Monday morning.

Getting a suit tailor-made in Beijing

2008-04-13T17:45:00.003+08:00

It was tricky to find out where the best place is to get a suit made in Beijing so, now that I've cracked it, let me share. (Thanks to Martin & Chengcheng for pointing me in the right direction)
I just had a suit made for 750 Yuan (~€68) in the Ya Show market on Gong ti bei lu near Workers Stadium. I also snapped up a couple of shirts for 80 Yuan a piece.
Ya Shi Tailor Shop can be found by turning right when you come off the escalator on the third floor.
There's plenty of price haggling to be done and, naturally, some material is more expensive than others but it's certainly reasonable to expect to part with less than 1,000 Yuan.
They say you can get a suit within 24 hours, but it took three visits (measuring, fitting, collection) before I strolled out with suit in hand.
'Sunny' is a real pro and I meant it when I said I'll be back for another one in a few months.

Hello Wiki, my old friend...

2008-04-13T17:37:00.002+08:00

Thank you International Olympic Committee.
China has unblocked the English language version of Wikipedia following pressure from the IOC to ease internet censorship.
China had previously agreed to relax its heavy-handy censorship when it was awarded the Olympic Games but it had failed to do so until now.
Wikipedia, along with BBC News, Blogspot, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty and many others, were blacklisted. However, Wiki is now available in China, as is BBC.
Now I need never do proper research on anything again. What a relief.
Fear not though, it's still impossible to read up on things like the events of Tiananmen Square in 1989. And Wikipedia pages about Tibet are, naturally, off limits.
Still, it's progress. Hopefully they won't decided to reverse the decision at the end of August once the Olympic torch is passed to London.

Haiti Prime Minister ousted in food crisis

2008-04-13T17:24:00.002+08:00

The Prime Minister of Haiti has become the first political casualty of the growing food crisis.
Jacques Edouard Alexis was voted out today as unrest spread across Haiti, which saw a UN solider killed.
The IMF is warning that the current global food shortage, and the accompanying price surges, could set back development by seven years.
Meanwhile, the BBC has a handy Q&A explainer on why world food prices are soaring.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7340214.stm

Olympic tickets selling for $2,000

2008-04-12T12:44:00.002+08:00

Politicians toying with the idea of boycotting the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games should think twice before calling to cancel.
Gordon Brown and Angela Merkel have already said they won't be at the opening night extravaganza, but if they had any sense they'd have politely accepted their tickets, flogged them on e-bay and made up a lame last-minute excuse. 'Ich bin washing my hair.'
Olympic tickets are offered online for $1,999 plus postage right now and such insanity will surely be heightened as the eighth of the eight, zero eight approaches.
While it's fun to laugh at eejits willing to part with such sickening sums, it makes me worry that as the camera pans across the crowd in the Bird's Nest stadium next August there won't be many Chinese faces.
The Chinese government ran a lottery system whereby some affordable tickets were allocated to locals, but anyone hoping to pick one up on the street can forget about it.
$2,000 is 14,000 Yuan - which is well in excess of the average Beijinger's salary.
The security guy who mans the security desk at my apartment building for 84 hours is paid 800 Yuan per month.
I can't wait to see his face when I give him the tickets...

'Get anything nice in the shops?'

2008-04-10T17:52:00.003+08:00

'Hello dear, did you buy anything interesting while you were out?'
'I did actually? I snapped up an overpriced non-yet-built apartment from a bloke who stopped me in the street.'
'Oh, lovely. Anything else? Did you remember to pick up some milk?'
'No. Forgot. But I did put a deposit on some unused out-of-town warehouse space which a salesmen told me was a great opportunity.'

Does this ever happen? I suppose it must.
I was stopped by lethargic salesmen on three separate occasions today while walking down Gongti lu near Workers Stadium in Beijing.
Two of them had brochures; one had a laminated copy of the artist's impression of a new development in the Chaoyang district.
I happen to know the location he's flogging and I happen to know that it's a hole in the ground.
So I decided against making the biggest purchase of my life, partly because I hadn't got the cash on me and partly because I'm not clinically insane.

China's 'War on Terrrrrr'

2008-04-10T17:33:00.003+08:00

Hmmm....could the arrest of dozens of 'terrorists' in China's Muslim Xinjiang province be a preemptive strike by Beijing?
China's other separatist headache has been simmering away in the background while international attention has focused on Tibet.
The Uygur people in the northwestern region bordering Tibet have complained for years that the War on Terror has provided cover for the Chinese authorities to intern supposed troublemakers without trial.
They reckon today's swoop is a simple case of police rounding up anyone who might entertain notions of competing with Tibet for the spotlight as the Olympics approach.
As illustrated by George Leader-of-the-Free-World Bush, preventing terrorism can provide an excellent excuse for doing whatever the hell you like without regard for due process.
Thirty-five people were arrested today in Xinjiang suspected of plotting to kidnap athletes at the Olympics.
This could be true. But does would it not seem like an audacious and improbable plan?
Let the jury remain out on this one for the time being.
Or, at the very least, let there be a jury.

Are Western media soft on Tibetan protesters?

2008-04-10T17:10:00.005+08:00

I'm really enjoying the website 'anti-
CNN.com'.
If you haven't had the pleasure, it's a site run by outraged Chinese mediawatchers who scour Western news outlets for examples of what they see as anti-Chinese bias.
Incidentally, CNN may feel a little hard done by to have been singled out for special mention given that several American and European media are criticized by the group.
In the wake of the mayhem that has engulfed the first three legs of the Olympic Torch Relay, anti-CNN.com has published photos which they say were deliberately ignored by the self-censoring Western media. The pictures show a 'well-functioning' male protester wrestling with a young, wheelchair-bound female athlete.
Lest we think there were no official photographers on hand to capture the moment, the website provides amateur pics of two snappers photographing police as they pin the protester to the ground.
I've been telling myself for a while that the Western media are simply more aggressive and sensationalist than Chinese viewers are used to. They tend to find the most dramatic and negative images available, which has been misinterpreted by some as anti-Chinese bias.
But if I'm right, why wasn't the fairly distasteful image above more widely published?
Is there a tendency to give carte blanche to Tibetan separatists because their human rights have been trampled upon?
I certainly don't agree with everything on 'anti-CNN.com' but they serve a useful purpose. The Chinese are not the only ones who ought to reflect on their media coverage.
Everyone's biased. Except me.

Food riots spreading across the globe

2008-04-09T11:36:00.003+08:00

As the price of staple foods like rice and wheat soars out of reach of millions of people, violent protests have erupted in dozens of cities.
In Haiti (pictured), four people have been killed in rioting which threatens the country's fragile political stability. UN peacekeepers are struggling to restore calm but with food prices up 40% since last summer, people living on less than $2 a day have grown desperate.
There have also been demonstrations in Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Mauritania, Mozambique, Philippines, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Bolivia and Indonesia.
The World Food Programme is running out of food and money, while the World Bank says the prices of all staple foods are up around 80% in three years. Eighty percent.
Despite all of this, coverage in Western media has been relatively thin.
The same goes for Chinese media, although they must be fearful that Asian countries could soon find themselves on that list of food riot hot spots.

News media, with Chinese characteristics

2008-04-08T11:07:00.002+08:00

I logged on to CCTV and the China Daily websites ready to scoff at how they glossed over the protests at the Olympic Torch Relay in Paris yesterday.
But I was pleasantly surprised to find they had covered the demonstrations, the arrests and the fact that the torch had to be bundled onto a bus to escape protesters. They condemned the protest, of course, but they covered it.
On the China Daily site, they also published over a dozen readers' comments - which were a fair mix of opinion on the issue.
They may not have portrayed the full extent of the chaos as reported on French TV (which said the relay had effectively been 'canceled') but it seemed a reasonable account from a Chinese perspective.
The media here in Beijing played up the counter-protests by Chinese nationals who supported the torch-bearers. These groups were portrayed as having been very much a small, fringe gathering by western outlets.
I'm not making the mistake of thinking that the truth lies exactly half-way between what the Chinese and French media say, but it's worth noting that the issue was covered, albeit with a natural Chinese tilt.
Am I setting the bar too low?

It's going to be a long 122 days

2008-04-07T21:52:00.003+08:00

This isn't going very well, is it?
Not even police on rollerblades could prevent the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay being disrupted by protesters today.
Despite a huge police presence, the torch had to be extinguished three times for safety reasons, and at one point was put on a bus to protect it from a crowd of demonstrators.
On top of that, Reporters Without Borders were promising something 'spectacular' to mark the protest, the socialist Mayor of Paris was to unfurl a banner in support of human rights and two national newspapers in France lashed out at what they dubbed the 'flame of discord'.
Is that how it's going to be for the next 122 days until the Games begin?
And then what? Another two weeks of intense protests?
It seems certain that the San Francisco leg of the relay and, surely, the Tibetan part of the route will be met with similar disruption.
From a Chinese perspective, providing their opponents with a stage to rally support and gather momentum is unwise.
The protests will have reached fever pitch by August if this pattern continues. The only way to defuse tensions is to revise the route and make conciliatory noises about dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
Meanwhile, the protests will continue.
Next up: The Battle of Buenos Aires on Friday.

Olympic sponsors walking a tight-rope

2008-04-07T17:47:00.003+08:00

Thanks to the anonymous poster who commented that a boycott of Olympic sponsors would help put pressure on China to improve human rights.
Interesting thought, but an article in AdAgeChina suggest it might be futile because sponsors will prioritise developing the Chinese market over upsetting activists in the West:
"Inside the mainland, nationalism is running high and multinationals need China's growing economy to offset a looming U.S. recession."
Still, companies are amoral and pressure can work. But the lure of 1.3 billion potential customers might prove too much to sway the likes of Coke and McDonald's who have been meeting with activist groups but playing it safe when it comes to passing on protesters' concerns to Beijing.
Bare in mind that sponsors have forked out millions to be associated with the Games, so they want to be seen to appease human rights protesters without unduly upsetting the hosts or, worse still, tarnishing the Olympics.

Time to reroute the relay?

2008-04-07T13:54:00.002+08:00

Yesterday's skirmishes in London during the Olympic torch relay should spark concerns over proposals to take the torch through Europe, the US and Tibet.
Protests were much larger and more aggressive than predicted by London police and Sunday's route was changed several times to avoid trouble.
At one point a protester broke through security lines and attempted to wrestle the torch from children's TV presenter Konnie Huq. Later, two men tried to put out the flame using a fire extinguisher.
In the US, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, has called on the public to make their feelings known when the torch comes to town. This amounts to encouraging (presumably peaceful) public protests.
Rather than have images of police wrestling protesters to the ground dominate the Games before they've even begun, surely it's worth revising the route now.
China can't march to 10 Downing Street, where the Olympic relay received the implicit endorsement of Gordon Brown, and then complain that others are attempting to politicize a sporting event.

'China politicising Olympics with torch relay'

2008-04-06T17:50:00.006+08:00

Simon Jenkins has some fascinating insights in his Sunday Times column today.
His comments on the London leg of the Olympic torch relay fit neatly into the line of argument I was attempting in today's earlier post.
In recounting the history of the torch relay, Jenkins reveals that it is the Chinese government (rather than scheming Western media types) that is seeking to turn its $30 billion Olympic investment into political capital.
First up, the global torch-carrying event is being staged by China rather than the International Olympic Committee.
And, reckons Jenkins, the route, which includes a highly-charged stop in Tibet, is no more than antagonistic triumphalism. Janey.
The idea of a relay from Greece to the host nation was invented by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympiad in a bid to link Germany with southern Aryans. It was resurrected by organisers of the Sydney Games in 2000 who devised a tour of Asia as a symbol of Australia's ties to the Asia-Pacific region.
Jenkins is considerably harder than I would be on the whole concept of the Olympic Games, but traces the history of the modern games back to the 19th century, suggesting that the Olympics were always political.
The original column is available here:
www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/simon_jenkins/article3689920.ece

Why pretend the Olympics are not political?

2008-04-06T15:56:00.004+08:00

Jacques Rogge and the IOC are continuing to insist that the Olympic Games is an entirely apolitical event and we should all ignore human rights issues in China.
They suggest sport and politics are non-overlapping magesteria (to borrow from Stephen Jay Gould, whose NOMA theory cordoned religion and science off into separate compartments).
Claiming that the Olympics can be hosted in a political vacuum is disingenuous in the extreme.
The Olympics are most certainly political. Indeed, this was part of the thinking behind awarding the 2008 Games to Beijing in the first place.
The idea was that the attention of the world would be a catalyst for social change in China.
And in many ways, it's working - although not always in the ways intended. On the downside, we've seen claims that Beijing is rounding up social activists so as to keep dissent off the streets this summer.
But in the plus column, the global attention given to events in Tibet and Darfur might have been significantly less focused if China was not preparing for the Games.
It remains the hope that Beijing - which cares deeply about what outsiders think - will respond to the pressure by modernizing its society at a speed that keeps pace with its economic progress.
Foreigners complained of pollution, spitting, queue-skipping and language barriers, so Beijing is doing its level best to address these (with mixed degrees of success, it must be said).
If pressure to exercise restraint in Tibet, ease censorship and tolerate free speech are met with positive moves by the Chinese government, then the great Olympic gamble will have paid off.
But regardless of the eventual outcome, let's not pretend that the Olympic Games were awarded without one eye on politics.
Or that international sporting events take place in a parallel universe where politics is not an issue.

Well, that didn't really work...

2008-04-06T15:39:00.003+08:00

Yesterday's lame attempt to boost traffic through the site by mentioning as many of Google's top searches as possible was in vain.
The Google Analytics report shows no significant difference comparing yesterday with last Saturday. In fact, the number of visitors was slightly down.
So, there's apparently no point in me checking the current top internet search terms and lobbing them into the blog to attract readers.
Should I be happy about this? There's great freedom in having no readers.
By the way, anybody interested in Charlton Heston, Grease Lightning lyrics, Christopher Walken or the UCLA cheerleaders? Just wondering.

A desperate bid for ratings

2008-04-05T13:00:00.003+08:00

I installed Google Analytics on the blog last week so I could pore over juicy data about how many people visit the page, where they come from etc.
The trouble is that once you become interested in this stuff, you're a slave to the audience.
And the audience, it turns out, is pretty small. Readers from China, Ireland, England, France, India, Greece, Australia and Japan have perused these pages, but they've done so in alarmingly low numbers.
So, I'm selling out (at least for a day) and writing about what people apparently want to read - according to stats from Google and elsewhere.
The top searches at present include Beyonce Knowles and her alleged wedding to rapper Jay-Z, the Skybus bankruptcy filing, Michael McDowell (the Nascar driver, not the former Tanaiste), Barry Beach, Jessica Lange, Clinton, Obama, McCain and, eh, pizza.
I'll also throw in a few classics: Paris Hilton, Iraq, sex, stocks, porn, Premiership, xxx, Hannah Montana and Youtube.
Now, if that doesn't send the graph soaring in a northerly direction, I'll be back to writing about life in China on Monday.
Of course, if it works, this site will become dedicated to sex, politics, sport and celebrity gossip.

They're watering down the yogurt again

2008-04-04T12:13:00.002+08:00

It's an outrage. The yogurt I so enjoy pouring on my oats in the morning has suddenly become milkier.
This happens from time to time: somebody in the yog factory decides to double their profits by halving the viscosity of what should be thick, creamy produce. This cannot be allowed to stand.
Let us march on Tiananmen in the name of viscous yogurts. Who's with me?

I said "Who's with me?".
Anybody? Anyone at all?
Hello?

'I will turn South Korea into ashes' - Kim Jong-il

2008-04-03T19:34:00.004+08:00

Oh crap. Looks like trouble's a-brewin' along the 38th parallel.
Crazy old Kim Jong-il (pictured) is threatening military action which would renew the Korean War.
It seems that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak, the Robin Hood politician pictured on this blog a couple of days ago holding flowers and looking benevolent, has upset North Korea.
He has refused to apologise for remarks by one of his generals who suggested South Korean would attack Kim Jong-il and co. if they suspected that the North were likely to launch atomic bombs in their direction.
North Korean - which the Chinese media refer to by its hilarious full title: The Democratic People's Republic of Korea - has branded the South Korean President a 'traitor'.
Can you really call the Head of State of another country a traitor?
The handy thing is that if fighting breaks out, there'll be no need to declare war.
A formal peace treaty was never signed between the Koreas so, technically, they've been at war since 1950.

China to Tibetan radio: We're jammin'

2008-04-03T18:11:00.003+08:00

China is jammin', but not in a way that Bob "We're Jammin'" Marley might approve of.
The authorities are jamming signals of the Voice of Tibet radio station by beaming music, drumming and noise. The jamming also affects those trying to listen in India, Nepal and Europe. Since when is China allowed decide what Europeans can listen to?
The station has irked Beijing by its coverage of recent unrest in Tibet. As usual the Chinese government has made no comment either confirming or denying that it is deliberately interfering with broadcast signals.
Voice of Tibet claims to offer unbiased information for people in the region - although China's state TV channel also claims a monopoly on impartiality.
Sometimes I think I'm the only impartial source of information about Tibet and all the rest...

China accused of 'wave of repression'

2008-04-03T14:06:00.002+08:00

This human rights malarkey refuses to go away.
Amnesty International has accused China of engaging in a 'wave of repression' ahead of the Olympic Games. Amnesty's website - just like those of Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders - is blocked in China, but the story has received widespread coverage in the ('biased') western media.
The charge is the Beijing is locking up troublemakers in a bid to guarantee a smooth Olympics. Naturally this is dismissed by the authorities here.
The latest high profile case to hit the headlines is that of human rights activist Hu Jia, the 34-year-old who has been sent down for three-and-a-half years for 'inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system'.
US diplomats in Beijing and journalists across China have called for his immediate release. He was, it is suggested, something of a clearing house for information which he routinely passed on to media organisations and embassies.
Mr Hu has campaigned for the environment, religious freedom and for the rights of people with HIV and Aids. What a bastard!

Fianna Fail TD suggests Ireland had 117% unemployment rate until Bertie saved us

2008-04-02T21:10:00.004+08:00

Found it!
Great news, unless you're Michael Kennedy, TD: I found the clip (mentioned below) where Kennedy, an elected member of the Irish parliament for Dublin North, praised the contribution of Bertie Ahern - who is currently working his notice as Taoiseach - to the Irish economy.
Predictably, Fianna Failers will be out trying to get their version of history on the record, while the Opposition are trying to narrow Ahern's achievements to the Good Friday Agreement.
For the record, unemployment in 1997 was around 170,000 or 10% - not 2,000,000 as Deputy Kennedy suggests. Note that Kennedy's estimate would have meant we had 117% unemployment, which, admittedly, would have been quite bad.
Here's the full quote:
"The fact that we have 2 million people employed now where when he came into office I think we had two million people on the dole. That is a phenomenal record and this country owes him a fantastic debt."

Irish politician makes shocking revelation

2008-04-02T20:48:00.003+08:00

Well, there's only one story today for anybody with even a passing interest in Irish politics.
And it's that we have an elected member of parliament that would be at risk of being outsmarted by primary school students in his own constituency were he allowed to speak in public more often.
Commenting on the resignation of Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (pictured delivering a hanging basket to a confused Texan), North Dublin TD, Mr Michael Kennedy hailed the contribution of Ahern to the Irish economy.
To paraphrase, he noted that Ireland had about 2 million people in employment these days but there were, like, 2 million people on the dole when Bertie Ahern came to power.
Allowing for pensioners, children and students, that would have meant the entire adult population was on social welfare during the 1990s - or the era of the Celtic Tiger as it's popularly known.
I was watching this live on RTE.ie and am desperately trying to locate a recording. However, when you search RTE's (generally excellent) site, not a single result is returned for "Michael Kennedy". Wonder why that is?
I don't suppose Fianna Fail hide him away 364 days a year lest he say anything silly? Today was a day when the usually slick government PR machine was thrown into disarray by Ahern's shock resignation. But that's probably a good time to allow backbenchers speak their brilliant minds - when nobody's listening.
Anyway, hopefully Deputy Kennedy will challenge Cowen for the top job so more amusing illustrations of his genius can be broadcast live to the world.

IOC urges China to unblock internet - for a fortnight

2008-04-01T21:50:00.004+08:00

The International Olympic Committee has waded into the debate over China's censorship of the internet.
In the wake of some fairly heavy-handed control of media during unrest in Tibet, the IOC is demanding that China allow free access to the net for journalists during the Olympic Games.
[Ironically, I read this on the BBC News website which was unblocked here in Beijing last month.]
Would it be too much to ask for the authorities to loosen up for a little longer than the 16 or 17 days of the Games?
But the Chinese authorities are way ahead of the IOC on this one, if The Atlantic Monthly is to be believed. It reports that Beijing has instructed internet service providers to tweak the Great Firewall which blocks politically sensitive online material.
The plan is to loosen things up in areas where journalists, athletes and foreign officials will be staying for the month of August. Then it's back to business as usual once the expats have packed up and gone home.
So overseas reporters will hardly notice internet censorship during their short time here, and long-suffering Beijing residents will hardly notice that things have been temporarily relaxed. Perfect.

6 billion people to start Atkins Diet

2008-04-01T12:40:00.004+08:00

The price of wheat is up 25%. Rice is up 30%. And it was announced today that the production of corn grain in the US will fall by 8% this year.
So, bread, pizza, pasta and rice dishes are set to become pricier and limited corn supply will put the squeeze on all kinds of foods including tomato ketchup and sweetened fizzy drinks.
We're headed for a global diet - like the carb free regime that made a fortune for Dr Robert Atkins.
But it gets worse. Corn and soy are also used to feed dairy cows and egg-laying hens, as well as to fatten chickens and cattle.
It might not even be possible to eat the high-fat, high-protein diet Dr Atkins championed. Although, he was obese and sickly when he died so that might be a blessing.
Still, if the global financial recession means belt tightening all round, we might need to make an extra hole in our belts to match our soon-to-be-shrinking waistlines...

From pig-jackings to rice rustling

2008-03-31T21:12:00.003+08:00

Not since The Hamburglar do I recall such delicious larceny.
I previously noted the soaring price of rice, which shot up by over 30% late last week, and have also introduced the shocking surge in 'pig-jackings' in China where pork has become an increasingly expensive commodity.
Now, The Guardian reports, Asian farmers must beware of rice rustlers. These sneaky grain thieves tip-toe into paddy fields by night and make of with a bag of carbs which will probably have increased in value by the time they make it home to count the grains.
I would crack some class of joke about The Hamburglar's Asian cousin, but this is serious stuff.
In the wake of Egypt's decision not to export its rice, Cambodia has followed suit and Vietnam is cutting exports by 20%. India, Pakistan and China are also hoarding their stock as the global rice market becomes ever more paranoid.
The impact could be immense. The World Food Programme says the hundreds of millions of people living on $1 a day spend 70% of their income on food. If prices double, that simply means they have to eat less.
Restaurants in the Philippines are already considering serving half portions.
People are protesting on the streets of Jakarta and Thai officials are fearing similar unrest.
Beijing is, as usual, saying very little, but the prospect of protests will become very real if the price hikes are passed on by supermarkets this week.
Gripped by a genuine food shortage, people in Asia must be puzzled by the use of the word 'crisis' to describe the current credit crunch that so upsets Wall Street.
If I may (rather inappropriately) invoke Crocodile Dundee: "That's not a crisis...now THAT'S a crisis!"

Politician Gives Entire Salary to Poor

2008-03-31T18:12:00.003+08:00

Warning: This might make politicians across the world feel a little uneasy.
The President of South Korea is to donate his entire salary for the next five years to the underprivileged.
And it's not his first time he's done such a thing. When he was mayor of Seoul from 2002 to 2004, Lee Myung-Bak donated his pay cheque to the children of street cleaners and firefighters.
Irish readers might recall that last autumn our Government tied themselves in knots trying to justify their hefty pay rises at a time when belt-tightening was on the horizon.
In the interest of fairness, it must be noted that Korea's President isn't just a goody-two-shoes determined to show up less charitable politicians - he's a millionaire.
He is the former CEO of a construction company and is considerably wealthier than the average politician (the exceptions being New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg and the leaders of OPEC nations).
But hang on! There's a better example of ordinary parliamentarians foregoing pay increases. In February, the Labour-led Australian Government announced a self-imposed pay freeze while calling on industry to cool the inflation-stoking salaries of senior management.
Call it a gimmick; call it mere symbolism, they led by example.
With a new round of Social Partnership talks in the offing, could Irish TDs agree to a similar gesture?
If things get tight, I'm sure somebody will give them a 'dig out'...

'Coming to you LIVE from just a few minutes ago...'

2008-03-31T12:53:00.002+08:00

China has redefined live television.
The arrival of the Olympic torch to Tiananmen Square - under heavy security - was beamed into Chinese homes this lunchtime by state broadcaster CCTV.
In the corner was a word suggesting that the images we were watching were being transmitted as fast as cables could carry them, directly from Beijing's central landmark: "LIVE"
However, it seems China is uncomfortable with the traditional definition of the live broadcast. AFP reports that the images were transmitted after a one-minute delay, presumably so any unsavory images, like those that interrupted the lighting of the torch in Greece, would not be inflicted on its audience.
Tiananmen's vast square was emptied of traffic, tourists and local residents, to ensure nobody could protest about human rights, or Tibet, or Taiwan, or Darfur, or the price of pigs (see previous postings).
The chances of a security breach looked pretty slim. But is this what we can expect during the 2008 Olympic Games? Delayed transmission? The 100m sprint will have finished before we even see the athletes in the blocks.
That's it. I'm officially outraged. I'm heading down to Tiananmen to protest - in real time.

Corrupt politician sentenced to death

2008-03-30T17:09:00.003+08:00

Bribery, favours for real estate developers, political corruption, hundreds of thousands of Euro worth of cash and property. It's a familiar tale.
But for former Beijing politician, Zhou Liangluo, the punishment for lining his own pockets while helping contractors land major development projects will be death.
Zhou accepted cash and a villa with a total value of around €1.4 million while serving as former head of Beijing's Haidian district. He shrugged off the sentence saying he would not appeal because the punishment was 'nothing unexpected'. He is one of 102 bureau head-level officials charged with corruption and bribery in Beijing in the past five years.
Now I'm not in favour of having the Taoiseach taken out and shot but...Bertie Ahern (pictured) might reflect on how things are done in China and be glad he lives in a nation so tolerant of politicians' financial irregularities.

The price of rice

2008-03-29T13:17:00.002+08:00

'Call Uncle Ben, we're running out of rice!'
Oh that it were so simple.
The Financial Times is reporting that the price of rice jumped by 30% to an all-time high at the end of this week.
The reason? Global price stocks are at their lowest since 1976 - when the world's population was considerably smaller. On Thursday, Egypt, a leading exporter, imposed a ban on selling rice abroad in a bid to contain soaring local prices.
Rice is the staple diet for 2.5 billion people, mostly in Asia. As noted yesterday, even people not inclined to social protest will take to the streets if they've nothing to eat. You could get thrown in jail, but at least you might get a square meal there from time to time.
It's not beyond the realms of possibility that food security could replace the scramble for oil as the source of underlying tensions between nations in the coming decades.
It could bring new meaning to the term 'food fight'. (Sorry)

Why Chinese inflation is bad news for us, them....and pigs

2008-03-28T16:48:00.003+08:00

Who cares about Chinese inflation? Well, I do. But not just because I happen to live in Beijing and bread is becoming a luxury product.
The Consumer Price Index hit a 12-year high of 8.7 last month. Stop yawning. This matters.
It's not just that the cost of living for 1.3 billion people is rising so fast that it could undo some of the dramatic improvements to living standards seen since China's economy took off - although that would be a decent enough reason to worry.
Inflation was one of the key drivers behind the unrest that spilled over into protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Instability in China means instability for the global economy, which would be unwelcome to say the least.
But, if you want a selfish reason to worry about it, think of the impact it would have if all the cheap Chinese goods currently lapped up by Europeans and Americans - clothes, electronics, household stuff - became significantly more expensive. With the Chinese seeking higher wages to keep up with inflation, the cost of exports will rise.
And as if that weren't enough...think of the poor swines. ["Oh won't somebody please think of the pigs!"] Pork prices are rocketing which means millions cannot afford a staple feature of China's typical diet.
All of this has bred a new form of crime: pig-jacking! Yep, that's right. According to Newsweek, people are kidnapping live little piggies en route to market, such is the soaring value of pig meat.
Remember though, we live in a global market so if the price of bread and pork soars here in China, it'll lead to further hikes in the West.
Better get those breakfast rolls while they're going...

Chinese hit back at 'media bias'

2008-03-27T13:49:00.000+08:00

The China Daily is reporting that Chinese nationals living overseas are launching campaigns to highlight what they perceive as Western media bias. The West, they say, is distorting the Tibet situation to hurt China.
As well as a letter-writing campaign in Britain aimed at stopping Gordon Brown from meeting the Dalai Lama, new websites and forums have sprung up seeking to turn the spotlight on instances where the media has gotten it wrong.
Among them is www.anti-cnn.com which gives several examples of how websites in the US, Britain, Germany and France have mistakenly identified Nepalese and Indian police as Chinese military. They also provide original photographs which they say were cropped in order to put the worst possible spin on the situation in Tibet.
Interesting stuff. Have a look. It's written in terrible English but I won't hold that against them given how poor my Mandarin is.
Of course, if China would let journalists and international observers into Tibet to see what's happening, they wouldn't face so much ignorance from the media which are forced to write stories about something they can't see.
Bringing a small, hand-picked group of journalists to Tibet to meet Chinese victims of Tibetan rebel violence doesn't count as press freedom.
More about that visit, see here http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7315895.stm

Chinese authorities unblock BBC News website

2008-03-26T22:49:00.000+08:00

Without warning or explanation, the BBC News website is today visible in China for the first time since I arrived last summer.
The Chinese government never comments on decisions to censor, block or unblock media so there is no way of knowing why BBC is now accessible or how long it will last.
In the past, sites like Blogspot and Flickr have all been unblocked for periods of varying length, only to be back on the blacklist days or weeks later. YouTube has a habit of disappearing from time to time, and The Guardian was among the many foreign websites shut out during the height of recent unrest in Tibet.
Let's hope BBC News remains accessible and that it continues to call it as it sees it when it comes to China.
Better still, maybe Wikipedia, Flickr and the millions of blogs currently off limits will soon be visible inside the People's Republic. We may cross our fingers rather than hold our breath.

Be nice to China - they'll own you soon

2008-03-25T19:36:00.000+08:00

China has about $1.3 trillion dollars in foreign-exchange reserves under its mattress and it's not afraid to use them.
It adds more than $1 million to that pot every day and its Sovereign Wealth Fund is shopping around the globe for stuff to buy. They have enough cash to buy up all the banks in the US, but enough sense not to.
Also in the business of buying up chunks of foreign banks and infrastructure are the UAE, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and...Norway. The latter has a hefty pension fund fueled by off-shore oil which it may be willing to gamble on the turbulent seas of the global economy.
For now though, just memorise that list of countries and remember that they'll probably own a portion of your posterior by the end of the decade.

On buying stuff in Beijing

2008-03-25T18:48:00.000+08:00

Walk into a modern shopping mall in China and it looks like any other.
The shopping centres are mostly new, they are swish and they sell branded goods - many of which aren't even fake. Amazing.
But it is very different to what I'm used to. And the biggest difference is that they have no interest in making the customer's experience easy and efficient. Oh no. The primary function of businesses in Beijing often seems to be employing as many people as possible.
Rather than designing a streamlined, direct way to give people what the want and make sure they leave feeling good about their purchase, they like to prolong the process.
This week I found myself having to buy something (batteries, as it happens) and, not for the first time, had to jump through hoops just to give them my cash.
First up, I had to decide on which batteries I wanted. In this, I was assisted by four young staff who had been standing around until I approached the counter.
They tried to talk me into cheapo batteries but I forked out and extra two Yuan for a brand that might last a little longer than twenty minutes.
Once I'd made my choice, the four staff members realised that none of them had a key to the glass unit protecting the batteries and a manager was required. Two managers arrived on the scene and, fair play to them, they found the key, put it in the lock and turned it - but not without reigniting the earlier debate over which batteries I should buy.
Okay, that was a rigmarole but I was ready to leave. But when I took out the cash nobody would take it. Instead, they insisted on writing up a very detailed docket which had to be signed by a sales assistant under the supervision of, well, as many colleagues as possible.
I went directed towards the far side of the shop where two bored-looking cashiers were sitting idly. I gathered that I was to bring my receipt to the idlers but the team of sales reps were holding my batteries hostage until I had paid.
At the cash desk, both members of staff got involved in the transaction, with one of them taking the lead as a highly officious air descended on the pair of them. I'd think they were work-proud pros if I hadn't seen them yawning 30 seconds earlier.
The receipt was signed and stamped in triplicate, before each page was separated before being loosely stuck back together with the aid of a watery sponge. And so I was sent back to the sales team, who inspected the docket, put a copy in their drawer and returned a receipt to me with the batteries. Exhausting.
The batteries cost 12 Yuan (about €1.20) I can't imagine how long it must take to buy a car or a computer. Or many of them it must take to change a light bulb.

Power struggles in China

2008-03-25T18:35:00.000+08:00

Batteries in China are a bit shit.
I've never gotten more than a day or two out of the AA batteries needed to power my digital camera. Granted, the camera may be heavy on the juice but this problem never seemed like such a big problem before.
I usually find myself with pockets full of batteries - some new, some old - any time I go out to take a lot of photos. So often I've bought batteries which were rooted out of the bottom of the bag, or taken from an open pack, by a shop assistant.
Sigh. The Duracell Bunny would last ten minutes in Beijing.
[End of rant]

Did Reporters Without Borders Go Too Far?

2008-03-25T17:52:00.001+08:00

I'm a little conflicted about yesterday's protest by members of Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
If you missed it, members of the press freedom group made a very public protest during the torch-lighting ceremony in Greece which officially kicks of the countdown to the Beijing Olympics.
In a truly shocking security lapse, one member managed to get behind a Chinese official as he addressed the small crowd.
China's state broadcaster seemed intent on illustrating their heavy-handed approach to censorship by dropping its live coverage of the event when the protest began.
RSF have plenty to complain about when it comes to press freedom in China and I'm fully on board with their fundamental point that journalism supports transparency and protects human rights.
The fact that China has booted journalists out of Tibet is a prime example of how conditional Beijing's supposedly new-found openness is. The fact that the RSF website is permanently blacklisted and that my internet connection dropped when I searched for information about yesterday's protest is another.
But is it really the job of journalists to storm the stage during an official function?
They surely obtained access thanks to their press passes. Next time, authorities will be a lot more careful when it comes to vetting journalists.
RSF is right to raise all the issues it raises. But its action yesterday may not help.
For one thing, it goes against the notion that journalists are independent observers. It also gives ammunition to the paranoia of authoritarian regimes who like to paint foreign journalists as spies.
Journalism plays and important role in improving the plight of the powerless. So does human rights activism.
But journalists should leave the grand gestures to activists - and vice versa.

Is energy rationing the future?

2008-03-19T19:41:00.000+08:00

I've a feeling I'm not going to like the future very much.
The Beijing authorities have just decided the heat should be switched off in government-owned offices and apartment buildings across the city.
The last few days have been chillier than recent weeks, but the government likes to turn on the heating in the middle of November and turn it off in the middle of March. This typically blunt policy aimed at curbing energy use doesn't care how cold my toes are of an evening.
It's currently nine degrees Celsius outside (and inside, probably) and it'll be just four degrees on Friday, but that's not cold enough to warrant a blast of central heating, according to the Mandarin mandarins.
But is this something we'll all have to get used to?
With oil prices soaring and reserves set to dry up (eventually), restrictions on energy use may become a reality across the globe.
That might seem like the work of a Nanny State to those in the 'free' world. But while in Australia last month I was struck by how strictly water conservation rules are applied.
The government decides who can water their plants and when; and anyone selfish enough to break the hose pipe ban can expect to be 'dobbed in' by their ever-vigilant neighbours.
Diktats from government officials? Spying neighours? Sounds like liberal democracies are ready to adopt the Chinese model: The government knows best.
Right. I'm off to boil an inefficient kettle for the hot water bottle...

Guardian and Youtube hit by media blackout

2008-03-18T17:29:00.000+08:00

The Guardian, Youtube, and The Globe and Mail are just some of the big-name websites to have incurred the wrath of Chinese censors this week.
Web users are greeted by the all-too-familiar sight of the above message if they attempt to log on to Youtube, while restrictions on BBC News online and Wikipedia remain.
Even some Wikipedia proxies have been targeted, proving that the censorship capability of China's propaganda department is becoming increasingly sophisticated.
As trouble flairs in Tibet, the government has tightened its grip on the internet in a maniacal bid to prevent Chinese people learning what's going on in Lhasa. Journalists have also been kicked out of the Tibetan capital and several rings of checkpoints have put in place as security is ramped up.
State media in Beijing are blaming the violence on the 'Dalai clique', branding as 'another huge lie', the Dalia Lama's statement that he does not seek Tibetan independence.
Monks, according to Chinese media, were lacerating themselves to make it look like the authorities had been heavy handed. In fact, says Beijing, the police have been a picture of restraint.
The problem remains that if the media are banned from entering the region and reports on the issue are censored, there's no way of knowing who to believe.

Happy St Patrick's Day from Beijing

2008-03-17T14:15:00.001+08:00

Poor ol' Paddy had to pose for hundreds of photos with Chinese girls - none of whom had any idea who he was. Patience of a saint.

Chinese authorities nervous about parade

2008-03-17T13:53:00.000+08:00

Maybe the Chinese were right to be uneasy about plans to hold Beijing's first St Patrick's Day parade. Even I felt a little uncomfortable about all the diddly-aye music and the jigging girls with their hair in ringlets in the middle of China's capital.
Public gatherings have never been encouraged here and the prospect of a mass procession down the city's main pedestrianised shopping street - Wangfujing Lu - caused a minor panic among officials.
The Irish embassy was warned that there should be no more than 200 people at the first annual green fest, but in the end, there were several times this number. There must have been at least 200 young, frowning police officers rushing around trying to impose some kind of order on proceedings.
In the end, our Minister of European Affairs, Dick Roche, led what must have been the briefest march in the history of Paddy's Day parades. [Surely he should have been in Brussels or seat of the current EU Presidency, Llubljana.]
The short procession strolled about 150 yards from The Foreign Langauges Bookstore to the Oriental Plaza, before doing a loop, retracing its steps and calling it a day.
I found myself escaping through the human cordon where I took many a pic of our 'European' Minister smiling gamely while talking through gritted teeth.
I couldn't very well skip back out of the parade at that stage, so I joined the lads from Christian Brothers College, Cork, and acted the langer so nobody suspected a thing.
The lads from Cork must have been pleased to hear they'd be spending a week in the heart of 'The People's Republic', although some were surely surprised to find that didn't mean St Patrick's Street.
Just because the parade was kept short, didn't mean that the festivities would be curtailed. There was Oirish dancing and trad music blaring out of speakers as bemused Chinese shoppers wondered how their Sunday shopping spree had been hijacked by girls in velvet emerald dresses and boisterous lads in leprechaun hats.
Meanwhile, things were a little different on the streets of Tibet where Lhasa was under lockdown. But we won't ruin our fun by mentioning such awkward political issues - or so said Minister Roche when quizzed by RTE...

All is 'calm' in Tibet

2008-03-16T13:03:00.001+08:00

Chinese State TV is reporting that all is 'calm' in Tibet after violence on Friday.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world media seems to think the place is in chaos with over 100 people dead, according to CNN.
However, stories about Tibet on CNN, Reuters, MSNBC and other internet sites are blocked at the moment.
On CNN, half the homepage is invisible, presumably because it mentions Tibet in the headline.
The connection drops when you try to access their Video section. Same story with Reuters. It's fine unless you click on stories about Tibetan violence.
If there really are to be protests about Tibet, Taiwan, Darfur and Lord knows what else at the Olympics, we can expect a total media blackout.

He's lovin' it!

2008-03-16T12:38:00.001+08:00

I've just been watching a rater bizarre kids TV game show (there was nothing but 'good news' on CCTV9).
It featured dozens of children dressed in McDonald's t-shirts throwing balls into boxes marked with McD's giant golden arch.
The presenters were holding McDonald's clipboards and the studio was decorated in the company's logo.
In a country preparing for the Olympics, it's ironic that this period will more likely be recorded as China's transformation to a fast-food nation than for its sporting prowess.
Is it any wonder that people are flocking to McDonalds and KFC when Beijing's sporting heroes can be seen on billboards advertising deep fried chicken sandwiches and Coke?
110m hurdler, Liu Xiang, is one of China's best hopes of Olympic glory this year but his reputation was dented following his sponsorship by a tobacco firm.
Olympic medalists don't smoke. But they don't eat Big Macs either - so why is there no outcry over the blatant marketing ploys by fast food companies? Given how tightly China controls the media (see above), regulating junk food advertising to children is something they could do without facing the old 'Nanny State' criticism.
The rate of obesity in China has increased by 97% in 10 years, according to a government report.
The British Medical Journal says that about one fifth of the one billion overweight or obese people in the world are Chinese. As they rapidly catch up with the West on the economic front, they seem to be following in our footsteps when it comes to calorie intake.
Surveys of school children showed that the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children aged 7-18 years increased 28 times and obesity increased four times between 1985 and 2000. Boys are worst affected and things have surely gotten worse since then.
However, since I arrived in Beijing last summer, free outdoor gyms have been springing up across the city. The public loves them - especially older people.
But if kids are staying in watching TV screens covered in McDonald's logos, Beijing might be a good place to open a Big 'n' Tall. Or a stomach stapling clinic. Or a Weight Watchers.
I haven't got it all figure out just yet, but I know there's a business opportunity here somewhere...

Smoking like a Beijing chimney

2008-01-22T21:49:00.000+08:00

I'm off the wagon.
Having kicked the habit in March 2004, I'm back to smoking passively again. Sigh. Wheeze.
Earlier this month, students tried to con me into believing that smoking was banned in public places in China.
Their argument went that it has long been prohibited to smoke in bars, restaurants, and universities - it's just that nobody obeys the law.
I bought into their logic on the basis that the police enforce laws in a random, spur-of-the-moment kind of way, and most regulations can routinely be ignored.
I saw people smoking in a hospital waiting room yesterday: smoking and spitting, spitting and smoking; even though there are signs up suggesting that neither are a great idea. These signs are all for show.
In Beijing's bars, you can get a flashback to pre-smoking-ban Ireland - complete with poor visibility and the 'smelly clothes' after effect. Indeed, to drink in a pub here is to journey back well before March 2004. The ventilation systems in the older haunts around here are pre-1980s. And by that I mean simply that they have doors and windows.
Similarly, walking down the street inhaling throatfuls of smog harks bag to the days before smoky coal was banned in Dublin. My favourite nugget of information - strictly from a Fascinating Fact, perspective - is that traffic cops in China have a life expectancy of 43. Forty fricking three. Imagine trying to get life insurance.
All things considered, Beijing is not a great place to bring your lungs.
However, all is about to change because recently (four hours ago, to be precise), it was announced that hotel rooms and taxis will be smoke-free for the Olympics.
Add to that the ongoing efforts to curb industrial pollution and halve the number of cars on the road in August, and my straining lungs have a lot to look forward to.
Whether enforcement remains an issue will become clear in May when the law is enacted.
However, the fines begin at 50Yuan (€5) - less than the price of 20 cigarattes in Ireland.