corruption - Crime fighter produces a bullet proof vest


ESWN is on top of things again with follow-up translations relating to the now famous crime fighter Huang Jingao, the Fujian party official that saw his letter on the website of the People's Daily on his fight against corruption deleted. In stead a rebuttal appeared and Huang was accused of not following the party discipline. As a detail in his story on the coalition between criminals and the local government, Huang said in the letter he wore for six years a bullet-proof vest.
An official investigation, now also published allong the rebuttal, focuses at length at this interesting, but minor detail of his story. Outcome: no vest. It took a Chinese reporter of the Yazhou Zhoukan to go to Huang Jingao to ask about the vest. Huang produced it right away, and the paper published it, together with a picture.

internet - Beijing unplugs nationalistic website


A two-year old nationalistic website had been unplugged after it refused to close down voluntarily on the request of the Beijing Municipal Informaton Office, the (unlinkable) Asian Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.
The Patriot's Alliance Web launched on Sunday a petition against a decision to award Japanese companies contracts to upgrade the Chinese railway system. In March the website got even international prominence as it campaigned against similar proposals.
Unlike other site of a political nature, this kind of nationalistic movements have never been targetted by the authorities, suggesting its often anti-Japanese attacks had silent governmental approval. But the waves of anger hitting the internet focused increasingly also on the government, and often the government was forced to act to calm the sentiments, for example when last year a Japanese company organized a sex orgy in southern Zhuhai.
It is a second internet policy change, after earlier a 'People's war against Pornography' took off.

video blog - Shorter and funnier...

Reviews are coming in of my now 2-piece experiment in video blogging and there is obvious still room for improvement. Shorter and funnier is the general advice of my friends. Shorter should be possible, and I really have been trying to be serious, but I seem te be better when I make fun. Many of my contribution for radio tend to be bordering to the hilarious, and I wanted to avoid that. Maybe I should just give in and tell funny stories.
I have done some more technical experiments, but the current system has rather severe constraints. Hard to interview other people or go out on the streets. That might change in the long run, but it would mean an investment in a rather expensive video camera (to replace my 60 rmb cam). That might be something for the future.

Connecting China - A married Scott Shi joins


At last we could nail Chinabiz marketing director Scott Shi from Shanghai down this week, as the next participant of Connecting China, only moments after he got married with the girlfriend he is already courting for five years. He has not only been very busy in preparing for his marriage. The legal part was the easy part, but now he will have wedding parties in his home town in Yunnan, in Dalian, where his wife is from, and of course in Shanghai, where both a working and living.
Not only the wedding parties keeps Scott busy. Together with him we are developing an exciting new business, just finished writing the business plan, so I could not bother him too much with questions about his online life.
But more will come, very soon, and since I can catch him more easy, he might be the first to talk to you through a video blog. Congratulations on your marriage, Scott.

video blog - Democracy, censorship and the internet

In my Thoughts on the Friday morning I refer to some of the discussion that popped up in the past week: no links, but you will find more than enough in the entries of the past few days.

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(When this one is not displaying, you can also look at the column at your right hand.)

internet - The censor filters are beating themselves

The recent uproar after China Digital News disclosed the list of banned words at the internet is having an interesting side-effect. Metanoiac complaints that after putting the whole list online, it was only with great difficulty the website could be downloaded.
According to my estimation that is because this information drives the censor filters crazy, especially since a few more websites and weblogs might have put up this information to inform their readers.
This could easily cause the filters to get overworked and might even slow down the overall internet traffic. In that way the system will always be beating itself: whenever the economic fallout grows, filters will habe to back down. Well, you do not have to be particular clever to develop a strategy to increase the pressure on the filters.
(More tomorrow at my "Thoughts on Friday morning")

media - WSJ's weird look at China's internet censors

The China Digital News quotes an article in the Wall Street Journal in an overview of two recent reports on how China tries to censor the internet. While both reports are rather factual, the Wall Street Journal looks at them from a very biased political angle.
Added together, these reports are helping to flesh out the shape of what critics have dubbed "the Great Firewall of China" and show how successful China has been in bringing to heel the Internet, which was once championed abroad as an unruly marketplace of ideas that would promote free expression. The communist government has jailed people for disseminating politically critical views, in part to serve as a warning to other Web users, the WSJ writes.
Well, that is a way of looking at it. The reports show - in my biased view - how little sophisticated the filter methods are, and how marginal they are in this massive development that will have brought very soon 100 million people online in what is - alright, according to Chinese standards - the most free medium China have ever seen over the past half century.
The example of the list of banned words at Tencent's QQ show the real problem censorship in China is having: capacity. Because of the growing traffic the filters bring down the speed of the internet and is causing collateral damage. That is also the line where censorship will stop: the Great Firewall will stop where economic fallout is causing too much damage.
(Tomorrow morning also at my video blog: Thoughts on Friday morning.)

censorship - Banned words analyse

The sage of the banned words on the Chinese internet goes on. ESWN has now analysed many of the words and the overview is rather fascinating. The interesting thing is that I can read his page without any problem here in Shanghai, while the filters stop me from reading a similar page at the China Digital News. Makes you wonder how it actually works.
I wonder how it works when you are in the middle of a chat and you use a banned word. Are you kicked out of the service? This list makes the Chinese ability to replace banned words with many of their homonyms even easier.

video blog - 'Thoughts' moved to Friday morning

A few changing in my video blogging experiment after the first session. First, the Sunday does not seem to be a good moment, so for the time being these will be thoughts on the Friday morning. I have allocated room at the right hand side (sorry to Amazon, who has not brought me any money anyway) so the latest edition will always be at hand.
Will develop the idea of syndication further and will be rather flexible. When I will be at the World Economic Forum next month in Beijing, it seems a good moment, it seems a good moment to use this tool more often and in a more interactive way. Stay tuned.

censorship - Banned words revealed

The China Digital News has a nice scope: it has found the list of banned words on the Chinese internet. You can find the list here, but only if you're outside China, why would they otherwise be banned? All these words put quite a strain on the filters in the networks of services providers, so Tencent's QQ has done something to save bandwidth: they put the list on your own computer.
Danwei gives an overview of the 'damage'. "About 15% of the words relate to sex, but most are political," it says.
When you want to have a look yourself, you should break open the COMToolKit.dll file of QQ, of course after carefully copying it, otherwise it might impair your chatting abilities.
It seems that also localized services like yahoo messenger use similar restriction. I discovered that I could not change the language settings of the Chinese version of yahoo messenger and also the sometimes revealing profiles could not be accessed. I have uninstalled the Chinese edition and work now with the British one: no problems anymore.

Watching TV is a loss of time - Amy Gu in Hong Kong


Amy Gu told already that she started as a 'spy in training' in Hong Kong. On the new picture we see her in action. Today, in Connecting China, we explore the change in her media habits.

Amy started a few weeks ago to study at the journalism department of HKU, as she reports on her new weblog, Amy in Hong Kong. (You need a proxy to watch it on the mainland.)
In Shenzhen she would never touch a hardcover paper anymore, but would only get her information online. She subscribe to Business Week, the Wall Street Journal, thefeature and Total Telecom, since she was working for China Mobile. Sina.com she read for the Chinese news. Now in Hong Kong, she has to make her hands dirty again and started to read the South China Morning Post, that is one of very few media that has cordoned off their information for non-paying internet users. Every now and then she also buys the Daily Apple.
"So so," she says about the quality of the SCMP, but at least it is more in depth than The Standard, the only English language competitor, and she gets literarly more value for money: about double the size. "I should improve my English ASAP, that is why I'm doing it," she says.
Watching TV is loss of time, she says, but she continued to listen to the radio, the same she would also receive in Shenzhen: HK Commercial Radio and HK Xing-Cheng entertainment. Amy Gu: "But that is also because I want to improve my Cantonese, In Shenzhen I did not need that as much as in Hong Kong."

Much bitterness makes a person mature – Fred Wang (32), Wenzhou


In Connecting China we have Fred Wang as the next participant.

Bitterniss is a word that shows up regularly when Fred Wang talks about this childhood. Born in an impoverished peasant family in Shaanxi province, Fred struggled to get an education. “I was crazy about foreign languages, and was actually good at school,” he says. “But you cannot choose your parents background, can you? I took my bitterness as a precious experience.”
His father had to lend money each year to pay for his tuition, often with great trouble, so he had to stay at home until all the money was together. An uncle helped out, every now and then, but Fred remembers one summer, when he studied English from eight in the morning till three in the afternoon and then had to help carrying bricks.
That education sets him apart from people of his same age in Shaanxi, he says, that now have to make a living as migrant workers. “They could not go to college, like I did.” Fred Wang is now teaching English and works as a business man in prosperous Wenzhou. His He married there a local girl and they have a 5-year old daughter.
“My daughter speaks the local dialect with my wife, and mandarin with me,” he says. Her life might be better than his, I suggest. “I’m not so sure,” says Fred Wang. “But I will certainly do my best for her.” Wenzhou produced in the past decade one economic miracle after the other, while Shaanxi province is much more struggling. His brother and his wife joined Fred in Wenzhou, but otherwise not many others followed them. “In my old home-town people are still old-fashioned and reluctant to follow new ideas,” says Fred.
There are very few moments when Fred is at home and not online: most of hier four IM-services, introduce him as an international business man. Later more about doing business in Wenzhou.
Connecting China will in the weeks to come first expand the number of participants, let them tell a bit about their life in China, then later we move on.

Phasing out the media control – the WTO column

(Very soon at Chinabiz)

The introduction of the internet, now ten years ago, has eroded the traditional ways to control the media in China in a spectacular way. Not only have the news agents changed from dealers in printed toilet paper to colorful contribution of the media scene, content has changed greatly too.
Taboos are still there, but they have been reduced to a few politicalsubjects, while journalists can take more and more freedom, although they often refrain from that. That is not a straight upward tendency, there are sometimes severe drawbacks, and the dinosaurs of the planned economy fight for their lives. The arrests and convictions of editors of the Southern Metropolis earlier this year were such a drawback, seen as a way of the dinosaurs to get even with the people who sounded the alarm over SARS in Guangdong and disclosed so many other scandals.
In a way the propaganda department looks like the famous neighborhood committees in Shanghai. Over the years they have been losing their tasks, they have lost their importance, but they are still there. When SARS raised its ugly head, the neighborhood committees revived and showed, much to the delight of the old ladies servicing them, their power in at random isolating their citizens. In a lot of ways the old system is still in place.

The release last week of Chen Yihong, one of the incarcerated editors of the Southern Metropolis, showed that also the old ladies at the propaganda bureau have their problems in misusing their power at random. Most amazing I found the second article of professor Jiao Guobiao of the journalism department of renowned Beijing University attacking the Propaganda Department. Gone are the days when academics could only criticize those powerful institutions behind the walls of their university, on the condition of anonymity.
Of course, his critical analysis was published in a Hong Kong paper, not in the mainland, but thanks to the internet, China is no walled garden anymore and those who are interested can read it.
Jiao’s arguments are rather logical. He maintains that the Communist Party will remain in charge, also when the Propaganda Department has been abolished. Media will have to stick to the law, just like in the rest of the world, and you do not need a third party to force media to do what is obvious, that they should obey the law, Jiao says.
His analysis of China’s past international academic and journalist achievements – almost zero – is pretty devastating, and Jiao blames the dinosaurs of the Propaganda Department for China’s backwardness.
Pretty amazing, since professor Jiao is educating all those journalists that will leave the university with a new look at those who should be controlling them. Jiao mainly discusses ways to phase out the control on the media: he does not see any alternative.

Does this also mean that the gates will open for foreign media companies to work on the mainland market? I’m less than optimistic about that. Even when legal restraints would slowly disappear, and they will, it might take another ten, fifteen years before there are chances to make a profit. That much time it took in manufacturing, that much time it will take in the financial services and there is no reason to expect that media will be different. It just takes time before stubbornness on both sides subdues for what is taught at business schools: a win-win situation.

Fons Tuinstra

media - Commenting on democracy

Chinese media came up today during the ongoing 16th session of the National People's Congress with an interesting referral to an incident that took place in 1945. During a meeting with Communist leader Mao Zedong then senator Huang Peiyan recalled how all the imperial dynasties had gone down, after have ruled China for different periods of time. He wondered whether the Communists as the upcoming dynasty had found a solution for this seemingly unavoidable end of their rule.
Mao Zedong then said they had, "and we call it 'democracy'," he told Huang.

economy - Tourists take off for Europe, despite pending agreement

The first groups of Chinese tourists are expected to leave for the newly approved destinations in Europe on Wednesday, writes the Financial Times. Nobody expects there will by any problems, although there are still pending problems. Diplomats in Shanghai indicated that there was still no arrangement for the return of illegal Chinese citzens to China, one of the conditions on the European side for the tourist' treaty.

Shanghai - International chamber mixer

This Wednesday September 1, Shanghai will host the annual international chamber mixer, this time at the Ruijin Hotel from 18:30 to 20:30. A must for those in Shanghai at that evening.

video blog - A syndicated service

I'm in the middle of writing business plans, so I have learned to think in revenue streams. Now, I got some nice - and less nice - comments on my first video blog. A first thought is that when I can work out the format a bit better, speak at half speed, shave myself and wear a tie, it might be a good tool for a weekly syndicated service. Other websites could then put the "Sunday Thoughts" on their home page. An idea? Please let me know.

war - US loses US$ 30bn in on visa rules - Amcham

A report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China estimates that the stringent visa rules have cost the country US$ 30bn over the past two years, report both the Economic Times in India and Simon World, both based on an article in the unlinkable South China Morning Post. The cost relate both to lost business opportunities and Chinese students who did not go to the US.
"A report by the American Chamber of Commerce in China...says members have seen a big drop in exports to the mainland because Chinese officials and customers do not want to travel to the US. The report blames (this) on an over-stringent visa application process that include mandatory fingerprinting and a lengthy approval period.
"...a survey commissioned by eight American businesses estimated more than US$30 billion had been lost between July 2002 and March 2004 because of visa delays and denials.
"US visa approvals for mainland travellers last year were down nearly 40% from the 2001 peak. There were 25% fewer applicants."

Missing a boy like him - Jiang Bo - Nantong


Bobo from Nantong in Jiangsu Province joins us as the next participant in Connecting China.
Half a year ago her first boyfriend got jailed for four years, for dealing in soft drugs. That was also the end of three festive years in Wuxi, where Bobo studied business. Now she works in the toy factory of her father in Nantong - Jiangsu province, where one day she might be in charge, or not. "At the university in Wuxi, I could always go to parties, even in Shanghai." Nantong is at the other side of the river and it takes more than three hours to get to Shanghai; in 2009 a new bridge to Suzhou will be reading, reducing travel to 1.5 hours.
"My father wants me to study business in Australia, but I do not want to leave," she says. Having parties and going to disco's are still higher on her agenda. At work she surfs the internet, looking for business opportunities for her father. "Of course I'm much better on the internet than he is," Bobo says. "The toys we make are so lovely." She is since 1997 online.
"People in Holland are allowed to use soft drugs isn't it?" she asks. "I never use drugs, but I do drink too much beer."

media - Professor's War against Propaganda continues



Beijing professor Jiao Guobiao hits out again (original entry at May 5) against the Propaganda Department in a translation by ESWN. China Digital News picked it up first (and an RSS-feed at ESWN would become useful). They also give many links to earlier stories.
Professor Jiao tells us why the Propaganda Department is useless and will disappear, although there is no timeline in the article. Jiao refers to what he describes as the appalling academic and journalistic record of China and blames mainly the Propaganda Department for it. It should and can go.
"If the Propaganda Department behaves consistently with the constitution and the laws, then it is redundant; if the Propaganda Department deviates from the constitution and the laws, then it must be in error. In either case, the Propaganda Department need not exist," writes Jiao. He says the Party will stay in control, but there is no need for the Propaganda Department anymore.

Connecting China - Updates ahead

New participants are flocking in for the Connecting China project, actually in a higher speed than I can manage between all other activities. Fred Wang joined today from Wenzhou, telling about his early life in Xi'an, Shaanxi province. "Much bitterness makes a person mature," Fred will say in a story that will be later online.
Still working on my chat with Sam Dai from Dongguan, who was giving some nice quotes to seduce women online. "You are the only fish in my ocean," is one of his favorite quotes.
Ivy Wang joined from Tianjin, and I got a new, actually much better picture from Amy Gu in Hong Kong. Again: hope to do some updating later today, and continue my interviews. Scott Shi, my marketing director from Shanghai is also still looking for a decent picture and some time to talk to me.

video blog - A disruptive technology

Technology is changing - and disrupting - life beyond recognition, says Fons Tuinstra in his first "Thoughts on Sunday morning" video blog. This is part of what Connecting China wants to record: fast-changing life in China.
Technology was not perfect today, as the US server was down when recording was planned in the Garden of Sasha's: next week a more exciting surrounding, and perhaps even a small audience.

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