Changing China
Giant on the move
Cooling period for Taiwan, China
Chronically isolated Taiwan found a powerful new friend over the past year – its once bitter adversary China. But as Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou, a leading figure behind that friendship, reaches his first anniversary in office on May 20, the two sides have shown they’re ready to back away from each other again.
Ma’s first year saw what few could have imagined even two years ago, never mind 60, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to Taiwan from China after losing the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists. China still claims sovereignty over democratic, self-ruled Taiwan and has threatened to take it by force if necessary. It has said the two sides must ultimately be united.
Dropping the hardball that characterised previous Taiwan presidents, Ma’s government has met counterparts from Beijing to work out the first direct flights, a new tourism accord and investment in each other’s markets, all of particular benefit to recession-hit Taiwan.
Talks leading to those deals lifted mutual confidence to where China has thundered about fighting problems overseas under Beijing’s ethnic unity banner. China has asked Taiwan, which is 98 percent ethnic Chinese, to help combat the world financial crisis, implying that both were victims of the U.S. economy. More recently it suggested uniting to fight influenza A, which also started overseas.
But due to dips in his opinion polls, Ma may take on China again to court Taiwan voters who distrust their Communist neighbour regardless of its contributions to the island economy. Taiwan Outlook magazine found that 28.6 percent of the public was dissatisfied with Ma in March, up 4.6 percent. The satisfaction rate declined 8.1 percent, the magazine said.
Ahead of a high-profile, highly ceremonial anniversary of his first year in office, the soft-spoken but ever-telegenic Ma just signed two United Nations covenants on human rights, an obvious weakness in China. His foreign ministry issued an unusually harsh news release condemning Beijing’s claim to Taiwan, which is just 160 km away. The island government has also come out hard lately in defending its claim to the South China Sea’s disputed Spratly Islands as China, Vietnam and others ramp up their own.
Economic benefits aside, no one on the island is rushing to unify with China. An overnight street protest from late Sunday, drawing tens if not hundreds of thousands of people, shows Ma faces continued strong dissent. “I don’t understand politics, but China really likes us, we can cooperate, and if not, we’ve got to strike off on our own,” said a typically cautious Hsiao Yu-chi, 50, a shopkeeper in the southern Taiwan city Kaohsiung. “We like happiness and freedom. It’s that simple.”
China is powerful. Now what?
What exactly is China’s grand strategy? Diplomats, academics and, yes, journalists have spent countless hours, pulled out innumerable hairs and spilled endless ink trying to figure out where the fast-rising power is headed and what it will want when it gets there.
But China itself sometimes seems much less sure of its political and economic goals than outside experts believe. Great power can breed great uncertainty about what to do. A vivid illustration of that came in a speech on Friday by Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank governor.
Zhou noted that China had a seat at the high table at the G20 crisis summit in London in April, was winning more voting rights at the International Monetary Fund and would help draw up new international financial guidelines.
“But we are confronting a challenge,” Zhou said. “You are better represented, your voice is louder and you have more speaking rights, but have you really thought about what you want, about what affects China and the world in China’s eyes, about what is important?”
“A lot of these questions are very new and we have yet to form a complete, consistent opinion. I have seen lots of scholars with all kinds of ideas, but these have yet to grow into a unified national will that we can act on or into concrete objectives that we can fight for.”
Photo caption: File photo of Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People’s Bank of China, on March 30, 2009. REUTERS/Jose Miguel Gomez
The current economic recession around the world is an excellent opportunity for China to take a great leap forward. The most important aspect for what’s next for China is technological innovation. China should allocate more funds to support research and development. President Obama as acted, so should China.
“You flu bigot!”
Flu bigotry is not a term one usually encounters, but that was the charge hurled at China this week when it quarantined 43 Mexicans, despite none showing symptoms of the H1N1 virus. It was not just an anti-Mexican bias, because China followed up by quarantining 22 Canadian students who were likewise free of symptoms. Many of the Mexicans had at least been on a plane with a person found to have H1N1; there was no apparent direct risk for the Canadians, other than their being from a vast country with only one serious flu case.
But before accusing China of over-reaction, let alone discrimination, it is worth stepping back to consider the quarantines from Beijing’s perspective. Just last week, the World Health Organisation said that a pandemic was imminent. Some have criticised the WHO for panicking, but governments do not have the luxury to second-guess such an authority when it rings the alarm bell.This is all the more true for China. Beijing’s laggardly response to SARS in 2003 let the disease spread to the point that authorities had to effectively shut the country down. Excessive caution this time around has been far preferable. The Chinese medical system is still rickety, rural areas lack basic hygiene and buses and trains are overcrowded – together combining to make China fertile ground for disease.A week-long quarantine is undoubtedly a deprivation of liberty. Yet if that is what it takes to prevent a global pandemic, surely the precaution is proportionate to the threat. Photo: A passenger walks past a temperature detection point for the control of H1N1 flu on arrival at Beijing Capital International Airport April 28, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee
While the Hong Kong government now orchestratessome real measures to revive tourism and overalleconomy, they are pulling the leg by quarantininghealthy tourists arriving at airport, for a diseaseof curable flu. We now discover that ‘quarantine’becomes a word superior to constitutional freedom,meaning ‘administrative detention’ with no avenueof appeal or review. Why go to a place with jailterm dispensed by medical authority, you’re kidding.Airlines shall have long time to suffer.
‘Swine’ flu in world pig center
By Niu Shuping and Ken Wills
Nevermind that the H1N1 “swine” flu, which has killed more than 150 people in Mexico, is not directly caused by pigs and has so far not led to any outbreaks among pigs.
Nevermind that the World Health Organization has ruled out any risk of infection to humans from eating pork.
Nevermind that the influenza-A virus contains DNA from avian and human as well as swine H1N1 viruses, but unfortunately (for the pork industry) has been tagged as “swine flu” by global health authorities and therefore by the media.
The net result is that, amid the confusion and potential risks of appearing unprepared, at least six countries have decided to panic over pigs, imposing import bans on live pigs and pork products from Mexico and the United States.
Indeed, the country with the largest pig population in the world — China — is going full-bore on a perceived threat to the domestic pig industry.
China’s quaratine authority took immediate action by banning pork imports from Mexico as well as 3 states in the United States, vowing to destroy any pigs that arrived at its borders. On Tuesday, in a meeting hosted by Premier Wen Jiabao, China’s cabinet worked out an 8-point flu prevention strategy, including one to strengthen inspection to detect any outbreaks of swine flu among pigs and to strictly supervise trade of live pigs as well as some pig breeding areas.
The medical quarantine applies to any person “in close
contact” with a “confirmed patient”, not someone of a
specific nationality. To presume a person as a virus-
carrier and quarantine him merely because he presents
a Mexican passport is simply “racial profiling” and is
of course, downright discrimination which should be
condemned by our civilized world.
China, Taiwan hold talks — hello?
Police should have brought sandwiches and sodas to the park outside a Taipei hotel where Taiwan negotiators and counterparts from old foe China held talks. Hardly anyone demonstrated against the mid-April meeting.
What’s more, over the weekend, as the two sides met more formally in China to sign agreements on trade and finance, Taiwan TV viewers watched news about swine flu in Mexico and the United States or celebrity scandal reruns. Monday morning newspapers’ editorials barely raised the usual spectre of Taiwan sacrificing its democratic self-rule to Communist China in exchange for lucrative trade deals.
What a change. Last year as the administration of China-friendly Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou began meeting with Beijing after a decade of frozen relations marked by occasional war threats, Taiwan’s China-hostile opposition thundered against what they saw as a sell-out to Beijing and led massive demonstrations during the second round of talks, in Taipei.
Does anyone care anymore? The short answer is “yes”, but many people have accepted the idea that China, which has threatened to use force to end Taiwan’s self-rule, can talk with Taiwan on non-political issues such as trade without rattling the political status quo.
“The third round of talks is just part of a process,” said Wu Chia-jung, 23, a law student at National Taipei University. “I approve of this method of dialogue. Taiwan is in a weak position. No one wants to fight.”
The latest, muted reaction also shows that Ma’s government has learned basic public relations skills, including recent newspaper and TV ads spelling out the economic benefits of closer relations with China.
“They’ve certainly done a better job of communicating with the public,” said Taipei-based political risk analyst Raymond Wu. “It’s a start. It’s something they didn’t do last time.”
Can China save the world?
China has long said that its biggest contribution to a world racked by financial turmoil would be to ensure that its own economy grows strongly, implying that a rising Chinese tide will lift all boats. The latest data show that Beijing has delivered on one part of the bargain; its economy, the toast of the world over the past five years, is once again ahead, far ahead, of the pack.
Many investors and companies are confident that the second part of the bargain will follow – that China’s recovery will be just the cure for markets still woozy from the financial battering. Such faith is not yet justified.
To be sure, China has already delivered a cortisone injection to some commodities, notably copper, the price of which has risen more than 40 percent this year. Strong stock markets, from Japan to Canada, since March are in part a play on positive sentiment spilling over from the Chinese rally that began in January. China also stands as the one growth market for global auto makers.
Yueyang Government of China robs it’s citizen’s property
Since the economic reform of the 1980′s, China’s economy has grown by leaps and bounds. With such fast-paced growth, China’s industries required ever more land for expansion. Local governments, eager to please industry, found a simple way to meet this increasing demand: expropriation. As all land in the People’s Republic of China legally belongs to the state, and not to individual citizens, local governments have devised clever ways to reclaim land. By cutting off the supply of utilities or even resorting to outright violence, governments may compel tenants or house owner to sell their land and houses at unrealistically low prices; the governments then turn around and sell this land to industry, turning a huge profit for state coffers. The following is a true story of one such “eviction”, conducted by the Yueyang government of Hunan Province against the land and property of Mr. Xiong.
In 2006, the Yueyang government decided to reclaim the land of the Yangshan Area, where Mr. Xiong’s house is located. In March of 2009, the government priced Mr. Xiong’s 252-square meter house at a nominal value of 203 RMB per meter squared. In compensation, the government will offer the Xiong family three relocation apartments at a subsidized price of 500 RMB per meter squared, but limited to 90 meters squared per every subsidized apartment. For any floor space greater than 90 squared meters, the family would be forced to pay the difference under market price. In the Yangshan Area the market price of a crude apartment is approximately 2300-2800 RMB per meter squared. Thus, whereas the Xiong family will sell their house to the government for 51,000 RMB, to purchase a comparable house from developers the family will have to pay close to 600,000 RMB. To compound the injustice, the government also offers no guarantee of when and where the subsidized housing complex will be built, thus leaving the family essentially homeless for the interim. Indeed, some residents evicted as far back as 2003 still do not have permanent housing to this day over 6 years later.
When the Xiongs initially refused to sell their house and property, the government at first resorted to intimidation, threatening to fine the family until they relented. When this tactic failed to break the resolve of the family, the government upped the ante by threatening the family with forced eviction and subsequent demolition of the house. Finally, on the morning of April 22, 2009, the government lost their patience and resorted to outright thuggery. The government paid a group of gangsters armed with clubs to march to the Xiongs’ house and threaten the family with physical violence. When the family called the police, no help came. Finally, the gangsters broke down the front door and beat the family to the point where the wife, mother-in-law, and sister were sent to the hospital for emergency evaluation. While the family was at the hospital, the Xiongs’ house was emptied of its furniture and valuables, and their house demolished. In just a single day, the Xiongs were physicially assaulted, robbed of their belongings, and left homeless, all at the hands of a brutal and greedy local government.
The hardworking men and women of rural China do not oppose industrialization, and they recognize that for China to ascend to its rightful place in the world’s economy sacrifices must be made by all. However, such transactions must be conducted under the rule of law, with provisions for the protection of property under a transparent legal system. Until such conditions are met, the actions of the local governments of China represent nothing but tyranny.
Waiting for the IAEA
There is a strong element of farce to covering the North Korea story, which should perhaps come as no surprise considering what an unusual, isolated place it is and how hard verifiable news is to come by.
One never knows quite what to believe, with all the strange stories that seep out about Kim Jong-il’s love of pizza, the rants of North Korea’s official KCNA news agency and numerous other bizarre tales, including these two. (http://www.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idUSSEO26227220080314)
(http://uk.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUKTRE51I2SE20090219)
But it reached another low this week with the arrival in Beijing from North Korea of a team of expelled nuclear inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The Beijing media corps dutifully rushed down to the airport and massed in the arrivals hall, quivering cameras and microphones in hand, desperate for any news from the reclusive country which bars almost all foreign reporters.
Trouble was, nobody knew who the inspectors were or what they looked like. All we knew was that they were on the Air Koryo flight out of Pyongyang.
A dribble of passengers trickled trough, including occasional North Koreans sporting Kim Il-sung badges pinned to their lapels.
Playing Lei Feng
A proposal to have Chinese “diving prince” Tian Liang star as revolutionary model soldier Lei Feng in a television show has prompted an angry response from some of Lei’s former comrades.
Lei was idealised by Communist propagandists for his selfless spirit and devotion to the Party and the people, though some historians say his legend has been embellished.
He died after being run over by a truck in 1962 while helping a colleague, according to the official story.
But now, 70 of his former friends-at-arms have written an open letter calling on Tian not be to allowed to play Lei on screen, saying his “indiscipline, frequent scandals and extravagance” made him an inappropriate choice, the Liaoshen Evening Post said.
Tian was kicked off the national team with fellow Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing for undertaking too many “commercial activities” in the wake of their successes at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Guo later apologised and was taken back, but Tian refused and retired in 2007.
“After careful thought, we do not believe that Tian Liang is an appropriate choice to play Lei Feng,” they wrote in an open letter.
“Lei Feng is a model for all the people to learn from … a representative of traditional virtues,” they wrote. “Tian Liang is an outstanding diver … but his outward disposition is very different from what we experienced with Lei Feng.
Nihao Presidente
The normally dull routine of presidential arrivals at Beijing’s airport turned into a mini-scuffle when Hugo Chavez arrived in Beijing for a “working visit” that he sprung on the Chinese about a month ago. The Chinese Foreign Ministry wasn’t eager for Chavez to mar the ceremony with a long-winded speech to the press, even though the Venezuelan embassy had invited journalists to the airport. As we gathered on bleachers set up about 30 yards from the waiting staircases, the television crews decided to call Chavez over for an inpromptu question-and-answer session. Immediately, the staircases were wheeled away to another spot, more than double the distance from the journalists and certainly well out of earshot.
As the plane slowly approached, the large Chinese and Venezuelan welcoming delegation began walking towards the red carpet, far, far away from us. But then a Venezuelan doubled back and gestered to the press. A break! Journalists sprinted towards the plane, dodging the airport security guards. A furious argument ensued, as security guards tried to shove reporters back while maintaining some decorum with the embassy representatives. Chavez descended the stairs, grinning amidst the chaos. At the end of the carpet, he turned and began to talk to reporters, while the Chinese guards tried to edge him towards the cars. A few minutes of talking, with no end in sight, made them more impatient. Amid a new round of pushing, Chavez himself got bumped.
“Please,” he said in English as he turned to the guards. “Soft, soft.”
Photo caption: Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez speaks to the media upon his arrival at Beijing airport for his two-day visit to China, April 7, 2009. REUTERS/Jason Lee
from Global News Journal:
North Korean Revolutionary Tunes Sink to Bottom of the Sea
By Jon Herskovitz
North Korea says somewhere up in the sky, a satellite it launched at the weekend is beaming to earth two revolutionary paeans: "Song of General Kim Il-sung" for the founder of the reclusive state and "Song of General Kim Jong-il," for the son who succeeded him when he died.
U.S. and South Korean officials said the North Korean rockets did not send anything into space and all pieces of the rocket crashed into the sea, including the claimed satellite, which might have been North Korea's oversized attempt to replicate an iPod.
The North Korean report was a a bit of a blast from the past because North Korea made a similar claim in 1998 that it had sent a satellite into orbit playing the exact same two songs.
There is far more to North Korea's hit parade of songs than the two homilies it said were aboard its rocket. This is a country where soldiers sing, farmers sing, the hundreds of thousand gather in the centre of the capital Pyongyang to dance in special days and a refined teenage girl always has her accordion ready to play a tune.
In the long term, Taiwan will have to get along with China.Independence is a dead end. The PLA doesn’t have to occupy Taiwan. It will just destroy Taiwan and there is nothing the US can do this to serve as awarning to Sinkiang and Tibet.
As China’s military power grows , the US will have no stomach for fight aspecially if it is triggered by Taiwan’s move to independence.
China will soon be Taiwan’s biggest export market and could be forced into a union economically. This could take maybe twenty years at least or when the PLA can stand up to US military power.