protest - Anti-Japanese demo seems rather small

Danwei gives an overview, and many pictures, of the anti-Japanese protest today in Beijing, that could draw according to some news releases only up to 1,000 people while 20,000 were expected. The government has tried to calm the sometimes fierce anti-Japanese feelings.

Update: Xinhua stayed on the safe side and said it were 'more than one thousand demonstrator', while Reuters keeps it at a neutral 'thousands'. CNN comes with the figure of 6,000.

internet - Benjamen Walker on misconceptions and more

NPR-journalist Benjamen Walker summerized his trip to Krygistan and China and his amazing about the freedom he found at the internet in China. His initial very upbeat assessment got a bit of a downturn, as universities started to limit access to the bulletin boards or BBS's. I got his radio-documentary (TOE 18) as an MP3-files over my RSS-reader, but did not see a link yet on his website; that will be coming.

life- Yuri's night hits Shanghai

Do we need another proof that civil society is booming and Shanghai is making its way into the world? Well, a few more examples would be nice and the Yuri's night on April 12 in Shanghai, a party at 53 places in 19 different countries, to celebrate space exploration, is certainly worth while. It will celebrate Yuri Gagarin's first flight into space, and all the other brave men and women who not always made it back. Anway, vodka is available at reduced prices. Follow the link for the details.
Books on Yuri

protest - Japan on guard as anti-Japanese feelings expand

Japanese diplomates have warned their citizens in China to stay away from a planned anti-Japanese protest in the capital Beijing, media report. From information on the internet they expect that about 20,000 demonstrators will gather. The protest are part of an expanding popular threat to Sino-Japanese relations and even the central government itself.

 

Books on Sino-Japanese relations

 

media - A new entertainment magazine in Shanghai

China has a very specific way of dealing with an oversaturated market. When almost everybody in making mobile phones, power stations and cars, more competitors join the frenzy, very sure that they will get enough of the cake.

And so I discovered a new English entertainment magazine in Shanghai 8Days. Of course without a decent license, but who cares about that nowadays?

I saw a hardcover copy a few weeks ago, forget to take it along and only as I was spammed by them yesterday, I realized I might be something missing apart from That's Shanghai, Quo, CityWeek and all those other magazines I do not read.

Their website has an ok approach, rather interactive, although it still seems to look for more people to interact. The producers, supposedly the former staff of That's Shanghai thinks there is enough room for a weekly on this booming market. We will see, I still feel that most of the magazine, included the add fees, are severely overrated.

The setup of the website is ok, but also very traditional and misses features that would be state-of-the-art today: no RSS-feeds and their writes still write last-century style columns in stead of weblogs. But that is easy to change.

 

Books on media in China

More tailor made internet censorship

The forces that try to limit the freedom on the internet have recently introduced a few technological innovations that are pretty amazing. Sohu admitted that now it could allow a person to put up his of her comments - says about the pope - and while the poster could read the comment, nobody else could.

This morning I had another strange experience that might be worth sharing with you, since we seem to be exploring unchartered waters again. I was posting a pretty harmless entry on China's emerging social society when suddenly my blogger.com interface went black. Now, the service has been lagging more often, so I did not suspect anything new here. Until I sat at another computer, and suddenly I got access to blogger.com again, even without using any proxies. I tried to post my entry on the second computer, and the screen went black again.

Isaac Mao reported a few days ago that his website was blocked. Some of the features he and others described did not concur with my understanding of how the internet filters work, but now it seems that the toy department of the internet censor has new goodies in place. Of course that cannot stop me of Isaac from posting, but it is interesting to find out how the new systems exactly work.

NGO’s – The upcoming environmental grassroots

Recovering a bit after I was almost literally wiped out by the sudden change in weather here in Shanghai (yesterday almost 30 degrees Celsius!), so posting was light. One of the more interesting post I should mention is that of Red Star News (proxy needed in China) who points to some quotes by the author Elizabeth C. Economy, in "The River Runs Black' who describes the friendly relationship between environmental groups and China's environmental authorities:

Environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are at the forefront of strengthening civil society in China, drawing hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens into environmental activities, forging non-state linkages across provincial boundaries, and establishing the Chinese people as political actors independent of state-directed policies. Environmental NGOs also play a critical role in advancing transparency, rule of law, and official accountability within the Chinese political system. Through this process, they have become a significant force for political reform. ...

And:

... Still, SEPA support for NGOs is very strong. It is common now for high-ranking SEPA officials, such as Pan Yue, to articulate the necessity of environmental NGOs for safeguarding the environment. Pan has also said that within the next two years, SEPA will help to establish an NGO cooperation network and to provide professional training for small grassroots groups. He believes that it is critical to have the Chinese people engaged in environmental protection and to open the decision-making process for environmental issues to make it democratic. ...

life - How to make your own no-criminal record certificate


Today at the Shanghai notary I got a rather sensible advise after my colleagues first tried hundred times in vain to get through to their phone service. My tour to all those government departments has been useless: I should make the certificate by myself. Letterhead of one of the papers I'm registered for, some mumble jumble in English, a signature and a chop. This weekend I might do some cutting and pasting to get that done. And perhaps, next week, it will be official: no criminal record. No need to get the police involved, said my advisor. "We have seen this already very often."

protest - Closing Pandora's box

As Simon World describes the condrum the Chinese authorities are in as the anti-Japanese sentiments that sometimes even turns against them. For the time being, economic stability is more important and the censors have order the traditional media to stop reporting about anti-Japanese incidents. Simon quotes from the unlinkable South China Morning Post.

Communist Party censors have acted over the rising tide of anti-Japanese sentiment nationwide, ordering all media to drop coverage of public protests against the Japanese government and companies. "No media coverage on anti-Japanese protests [should be allowed]. Journalists should not participate in or conduct interviews to do with anti-Japanese activities," the circular said.
It reminded the media to be vigilant about those trying to take advantage of the anti-Japanese sentiment to put pressure on the government over domestic issues which have triggered sharp debate in the media and internet chat rooms. "[The media] should be highly alert to collusion [among groups which promote] liberalisation, Falun Gong, anti-Japanese [sentiment] and religions," the circular said, using Communist Party references to westernisation and the spiritual group branded an "evil cult" and banned six years ago on the mainland.
"[The media] must attach great attention to the issues and maintain a high degree of political alertness," it added.

In a booming economy any anti-foreigner riots in China would destabilize that economy and I'm pretty sure large scale riots will be suppressed. That might be different, one day, when then economy might not grow and keep the Chinese citizens busy. Then the roaring patriottism could be a convenient way to gather support for the government, but at this stage that is not the case.

internet - Edelman and the ABC of blogging

PR-firm Edelman and Intelliseek have published a guide on blogging. "In a very short time, the blogging phenomenon has drastically altered the landscape and challenged traditional tenets about the control of messaging by corporations, the media, the government, marketeers and company stakeholders," it says in its introduction.
While focusing on communication specialists and the situation in the US, it is also useful material for those who regularly ask me what the hype is about. Because of the number of people talking Chinese (vs those talking English) and fast growing connectivity in China, I do expect in a few years time similar changes in this country.
Anyway, downloading was a bit of a challenge, so I will not bother you with a direct link. Those who are interested can send me an e-mail, then I can forward you a copy.

internet - Anti-Japanese campaign turns against Beijing - FT

Conducting diplomacy on the streets is never clever, even when those streets are virtual. Over 20 million Chinese have united online against an effort of Japan to secure a seat in the UN Security Council. According to unconfirmed messages on sina.com a crowd of 10,000 turned violent against a Japanese department store in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province.
But the campaign is now also turning against the central government, because it has not yet openly opposed Japan's bid, writes the Financial Times.

Many internet users posting comments on Sina and other websites at the weekend turned their ire on the Chinese government for what they said was its weak stance on the issue.
Unlike South Korea, which has stated publicly it will not support Tokyo's UN bid, China has not said it will oppose Japan taking the Security Council seat.
"How can China stand firm when its state leaders are all impotent?" said one online posting. "If China gives approval this time, state leaders will have no right to sit in their current positions - let them go home and embrace their kids."
Bulletin board postings attacked Wu Jianming, a senior diplomat who now serves as director of the Foreign Affairs University, for his comment that China should treat Japan's application "in a rational manner".

life - I have no criminal record...


... but how to prove it? A few weeks ago I took you along on my quest along the Chinese bureaucracy to find a certificate that would state I have no criminal record in China. The notary in my Xuhui district told me to go to my local police station. They send me to the Xuhui court and they send me back to the police station. They collectively decided then that my official danwei, the ministry of foreign affairs, should chop the form I took along from the notary. It took some time to recover from all this.
This morning I called foreign affairs and they asked me to fax a request - something they always do even when you want to use their toilet. They called me and they had already called also the immigration service at Wusong Road. The ball is back in the court of Mr. Wang of the notary office, who has to contact all these institutions. I cannot do this by myself, they said.
I start to wonder whether it is possible to register at my second home in Brussels without this hard to obtain document. Just go after Mr. Wang for the rest of the day.

internet - P2P porn campaign goes nationwide

Danwei follows the efforts by Chinese authorities in trying to limit P2P networks that not only make is possible to share music, but also naughty movies and other porn. Nanny on a fun wild goose chase, jokes Danwei. Rightfully, as the music industry has already tried to stop those peer-to-peer networks.

labor - Illegal migrant associations force trade union into action

The official Chinese trade union ACFTU has been forced to expand its activities under the pressure of illegal migrant associations that have tried to protect the migrant workers’ rights, the official newswire Xinhua writes today in a pick-up from the China Daily.
Traditionally the ACFTU, the only allowed trade union in China, would only focus on cities and urban workers. Unlike trade unions in other countries, the Chinese union does seldom engage into collective agreements and would mostly organize the annual company trip in exchange for a few percent of the payroll. It would have no presence outside the cities, among migrant workers or within private companies.
But “the backbone of China’s manufacturing and construction industries” haven taken action to protect their rights, as not paying migrant workers became an almost national tradition in China. Last year the central government tried to address this problem, especially after millions of migrants workers in Guangdong and Fujian decided not to return to their jobs.
“To have their plight noticed and addressed, some migrant workers have resorted to violence of suicide attempts to attract the attention of the public and the authorities, Xinhua says. But they have also set up organizations to protect their rights that are technically illegal in China. “These, to a certain extent, perform some of the function that a formal trade union,” the remarkable article continues, almost condoning its activities. “For example, in labour dispute, they negotiate pay or other issues with the employer.”
As those organizations have no legal basis, they cannot use legal means to protect the workers they represent.
Since 2003 the ACFTU is trying to fill up the legal gap it has ignored for decades and expands its activities to the country side. In for example Yiwu, a trading place in booming Zhejiang province, the ACFTU set up a legal assistance center to help migrant workers.
The article says that the illegal organizations have disappeared where the official union took action, but getting a real assessment is still very hard. The focus of the new central government on rural prosperity seems to have profound implications for the trade unions in China and the way they deal with migrant workers.

Also at BNN

internet - The emerging HK blogging scene

The Standards gives today an overview about the emerging blogging scene in Hong Kong. In number (around 40) it is still very small, even compared to the mainland, but as you might expect, they are much more politicized. Says Andrea Leung of T-salon:

By blogging, Leung says she hopes to create "a better understanding,
especially outside Hong Kong, that there are people who want a more open and democratic system and that they are trying really hard to make that happen.''

No more heroes anymore – the WTO column

(Later also at Chinabiz and BNN)
One of the problems when news or debates crosses cultural divides is that on different parts of the divide people had to deal with different information. I still remember the shocked messages I got in the 1990s from the US when a Chinese citizens arrived there after serving a very long time in a Chinese prison.
Apart from the freedom hero he was in the Western media, he emerged than also a racist, an anti-feminist and – that really got him in into trouble in the US – a chain-smoker who saw smoking as his ultimate human right. His problems were mentioned in a rather subdue way: the media did not want to kill their longtime hero.
Both Western and Chinese media sanitize their stories, so they become easy to digest for their different audiences. But that tradition of cleaning up stories for domestic consumption shows severe signs of metal fatigue now we can actually know more about people than the traditionally media in the past would allow us to know thanks to the internet.

Two media professors from the better Chinese universities, both depicted as promoters of free speech, have a less than straight forward record on media politics than Western media made us believe, and in the past few weeks simmering discontent with both professors emerged..
Thanks to CNN and a few other mainstream media professor Li Xiguang of Tsinghua University emerged during the SARS crisis in 2003 as a believer in free speech. On the internet, the approach was more critical: "During the SARS period, CNN interviewed him and asked him about why China imposed a national blackout on information,” writes a blogger. “He bluntly pointed out that there was no need for the government to do so and that the media should be allowed to collect and publish news. Then he turned around and told the Chinese students that the whole SARS terror was manufactured by the foreign media." Li is now called, ‘the man with two faces’.
His colleague Jiao Guobiao got himself recently fired as a media professor at the Beijing University, after getting a good press in de West and a fellowship in the US. Jiao had fiercely attacked the Ministry of Propaganda as an out-of-date dinosaur. What Western media did not disclose in great detail was Jiao’s single-minded admiration for the US. In a rather poor poem Jiao wrote recently, addressing US soldiers in Iraq:
American soldier,Allow me to call you "Brother!"If you are looking for volunteers,Please let me know in the first instant!
Not the kind of stuff you would expect from a Beida media professor.
The internet again dissected his record. Jiao (oops: Li) was linked directly with the rigid limitation of the universities bulletin boards or BBS’s imposed last month. Those BBS’s were up to that moment the platform of the freest possible exchange of information in China. He asked the National People’s Congress to disallow people to enter the internet anonymously. And just that happened, to the dismay of many. Again another Chinese media professor was sending out messages that could easily confuse the average news consumer, both in and outside China.

No more heroes anymore. That is the effect of the internet on the traditional media, robbing them from a classic way to gain attention, both in and outside China. Revolutionary plumbers, media professors or diligent bus conductors will have a much harder time to survive the scrutiny of the public.

Fons Tuinstra

Correction: As one of the commentors noted: in the one before last paragraph I mixed up both professors. A correction has been added.

economy - Shanghai real estate keeps on bubbling

Shanghai bubble
While the central government tries to cool down the booming real estate, prices in Shanghai continue to rise. Last week I talked to a happy owner of a villa who had paid nine months ago two million renminbi for his house, that was now worth over four million Renminbi.
Business man Marc van der Chijs discovered a row of people sitting in front of a sales office next to his building. (Could not find the permalink)

I was told that some of the people had been sitting there for 5 days already! If you had nobody to sit in line for you, you might miss out on the chance to buy an apartment. Because prices are skyrocketing, many Shanghainese buy one or more apartments, it[base ']s still a great investment with high double digit price increases every year. A project manager at China Bay told me that she bought a new apartment 2 years ago for just over USD 100,000 and its value has more than doubled since!

economy - The tale of the missing migrant workers


The story continues from last year, as Guangdong and Fujian are missing about two million migrant workers. The New York Times went to Hunan province to see what their alternatives are.

...Hunan's fast-growing provincial capital, Changsha, is beginning to siphon some workers back from Guangdong. Zu Xian, 22, quit a factory job in Guangdong because the high cost of living prevented her from saving money. She now matches her old factory wage by selling cosmetics at a new shopping mall in Changsha, a job that allows her far more free time and far less stress.

And:

Economists say the Yangtze Delta region, which encompasses coastal Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces, as well as Shanghai, is already beginning to rival Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta for manufacturing supremacy in China. Factory life can be bleak in the Yangtze Delta, but many manufacturers are raising pay and improving conditions.