internet - Defining the issues: paying for infrastructure

Diving into internet governance issues and China's position, I will start to identify some issues that come up, for example in this report of a working group on internet governance. One of the issues is that of who pays for the infrastructure and on how to divide the costs.
Under traditional telecommunication, developed countries subsidized developing countries in the way costs for international calls were divided. Now, the internet is eroding those revenue streams, making developing countries rather reluctant to invest in the internet. How to solve that problem.
That was a dilemma I did not see as I was complaining about the poor internet connections in Shanghai. Initially the Chinese government has been pushing the development, but did not realize the telecom companies would see the internet as a threat to their income.

internet - Baidu fuels new bubble

Baidu's shares went up 450 percent in value after its IPO in the US, write all media. The jump says more about the US market, where investors did not want to lose another 'google' IPO, says the unlinkable Wall Street Journal. The success came as a surprise to even the most optimistic analysts.
The rumor that Google was trying to buy into Baidu triggered off the buying mood. The company will have to realize the expectations in China, and that might still be a little bit tougher.

internet - A global discussion on China's position on the internet II

Diving deeper into the subject of internet governance and things get worse. Ever thought that at the basis of the internet connection you are looking has to do with ENUM, ITU-T, RIPE-NCC, IAB/IETF? People who dived it before say you get used to it. Maybe I do not want to.

economy - USD 56.6 billion into a black hole?

The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, has put a whappy USD 56.6 billion into the coffers of the ICBC, China's largest commercial bank, to let it pay off its debts, Reuters reports. Did not see too much coverage of this transaction.

Internet - A global discussion on China's position on the internet

Internet governance is keeping me busy these days. I'm working on a project proposal focusing on the ongoing discussion on how to organize the internet and - as an extention of that - how to give China a position in the now US-dominated discussion on how to distribute limited resources on the internet. China is now the second-largest user of the internet and together with other upcoming forces on the internet they demand a bigger say.
I do not want to say too much about it, since it is only the start of making a proposal. But I'm rather shocked by the murky character of the whole discussion, littered with jargon, while it is of eminent importance of so many stakeholders.
I'm trying to make sense out of the battle flied of ICANN, WSIS and so many other organizations that drives me absolutely crazy.

media - The banning game in full swing

Now presidents Hu Jintao and George Bush are going to meet next month, the Propaganda Ministry is in full swing and routinely bans Chinese media to write about any subject that could stir up anti-American feelings, writes the (unlinkable) Wall Street Journal.

China is heavily restricting domestic news coverage of Cnooc Ltd.'s failed bid to buy American oil company Unocal Corp., a move apparently aimed at muffling criticism of the U.S. before next month's summit meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and President Bush.

Guess editors make overtime in reading all the announcements about the bans.

internet - A blog is a blog, or maybe not

Global Voices summerizes neatly some of the key discussion in the Chinese bloghosphere. Centre of the discussion is the former BlogChina, now bokee.com, who has - upsetting others - exploited the blogs commercially. It now claims to have two million blogs, while others say what they make does not fit the definition of weblogs.
That makes counting the number of weblogs in China of course rather complicated.

Europe’s China agenda - the WTO-column

(Later also at Chinabiz)
Brussels - When you compare the way the US and Europe are dealing with the upcoming economic force called China, then it is hard not to note some very remarkable differences. The relations between the US and China are almost daily subject of scrutiny by Congress and the US media. Can CNOOC buy a US oil company? Should China revalue its currency more? Is doing China enough to protect intellectual property rights? Is China taking our jobs away?
While I often disagree with the conclusions of both the US Congress and media, what I appreciate is that there is a public debate going on. Hey, we journalists also need to make a living, one way or the other.
How different is the way Europe and its member states are dealing with China. There is no lack of European visitors to Beijing and visa versa. Just like representatives of the US administration China adds substantially to the frequent flier miles of visitors from Brussels, who also come in droves as often the rotating country-in-charge sends its representatives along to keep an eye on the EU Commission.

But hanging around in Brussels I get confronted with an eerie silence when I ask spokespeople what kind of China issues are on their media agenda. “We have of course the issue of the weapons embargo,” says one of them. And after some time: “And there are some trade issues, but they are often too technical.”
His observation and that of many of his colleagues is correct: in Europe China is not on the political agenda. That says perhaps more about Europe than about China. While the importance of Europe has been increasing dramatically over the past decade, while also the number of journalists covering the European capital has gone up, that have not translated into real political debates that focuses too often on internal politics in the member states. That is of course the real European disease: international issues all seem so uninteresting until it is too late. Europe is still ruled by civil servants more than politicians.

What China issues should be on the agenda? What should concern both politicians and their citizens? There are some very urgent issues:
- Criminal organizations from China are becoming more and more important in Europe; the cooperation between European and Chinese law enforcement agencies does not seem to keep pace with that development.
- China’s larger companies might not be very successful in getting access to global business, in Europe they get more rooted into the low-end, often semi-illegal industries and sweatshop that employ illegal immigrant and often ignore labor laws, tax law and other regulations.
- Stringent European immigration laws (unlike those in the US) do not only keep economic migrants out, they also stop a growing number of talented Chinese that could support the European economy.
- Tourism from China is still very much hampered by fear and unnecessary and inefficient regulations.

Of course, there are the trade issues that for sure are not really a technical issue, as European civil servants say. They have profound influence on the European economy and should be treated like that.
Europe does need a China-agenda.

Fons Tuinstra

labor - Free legal aid for unpaid migrant workers

The Beijing Higher People's Court has removed an important barrier that stopped migrant workers from taking legal action against employers who have not paid their wages, Xinhua news agency reports. It obtain free legal aid, migrant workers had to obtain a document from their employer stating they were unable to paid for legal services.
Migrant workers can now freeze assets of their employer. The ruling is valid for all courts in the Beijing municipality. Often this kind of regulations also get introduced in other parts of the country in a later phase, but the article does not refer to that yet.

Wal-Mart opens in Shanghai

economy - Only 100,000 people show up

I would have been there if I had been in Shanghai. When you know that Shanghai has 20 million inhabitant fighting to get anything cheaper, a turnout of only 100,000 can only be called disappointing. For the fighting crowds it has been a disappointing experience, as Shanghaiist points out:

Ms Xu just came out of Hua Lian Supermarket near Wal-Mart. She says, "I planned to buy my son a piece of pizza at Wal-Mart, but their price was 8.90 Renminbi. Hua Lian sells the same pizza for 7.80 Rmb - and their cucumber is cheaper too."

The US price fighter has been defeated by domestic competition on its first day.

Brother Furong

internet - And then there is gay brother Furong

During my background search into sister Furong, the website of China International Radio I bumbed into a virtuale male offspring: brother Furong, a gay student at the Renmin University in Beijing. He performs often at domitories for his fellow students. The site summerizes:

Many of Jimmy’s schoolmates have changed from displaying prejudice toward him to encouragement. Many of the responses to his posts are positive, and his roommates have genuinely accepted him. Some students say Jimmy is very masculine in appearance – when he doesn’t dress like a woman.

Muzi Mei

internet - A catalogue of would-be cute net stars

A magazine asked to do a short column about Furong Jiejie, one of the latest and rather boring sexblogger in China. During my research I bumbed into this very well done overview of China's net stars at the website of the China Radio International.
After the adventures of Muzi Mei, who got a reputation by publisher a review of her sex partners by name, things have become rather dull on these blogs, where discussions on Furong concentrate on the question how somebody that ugly can get so much attention. She seems to be a kind of anti-star, no skills to offer, even no cute body, in Holland it would be a cult too.

protest - A 'stern warning' from the top

Making sense out of China's policies is an art in itself. Last month a high official created a stir as he did not follow the normal track of official reasoning and praised farmers for fighting against corrupt local officials. As the People's Daily issued a statement last Thursday against social unrest and illegal action, media were fast in concluding things were back to normal, as here in the IHT.
Protecting stability comes before all else, it said. The statement was vague enough, I feel, since corrupt local officials who deny local citizens their legal rights act against the law in the same way farmer do so when they use violence to take back what is not given to them legally. Interesting times, for sure.

travel - Heading for Hamburg

Will be on the road this month again and most likely spend most of the second half of August in Hamburg. Tips on what do to and who to meet are welcome.

economy - Economists warn against deflation

Chinese economists have started to speculate China might see a deflation in the second half of this year, according to the official news agency Xinhua. (Tipped by the China Digital Times).

Lin Yifu, Director of China Center for Economic Research (CCER)of Beijing University, said at the forum held quarterly by CCER that owing to the overproduction in most manufacturing sectors since 1998 and the to-be-overcapacity from over-investment in some sectors in 2003 and 2004, China is expected to see deflation caused by overcapacity in the latter half of 2005.

"Some sectors" means of course for a large part the automotive industry. More economist follow his argument, although they have sometimes different reasons. For example the expected good harvest would also cause the agricultural prices to drop. Total income on the country side would then go up despite an average drop in prices, but I'm not an economist, of course:-). That would lead to a drop in migrant workers to Guangdong, a rise in wages and then again inflation... Maybe only in the first half of 2006.

media - A writer leaves the Economic Observer

T-Salon notes with sadness the departure of Xu Zhiyuan as a writer at one of the better dailies covering China's economic developments. Toeing the party line and running a successful medium is very hard to combine. Xu writes:

I hate the Economic Observer nowadays because it is like a party struggle. It's so politically correct and it's so intransparent.

Andrea does not explain exactly what happened, but says:

Given his talent, vision and ambitions, I knew he wouldn't stay for very long with the Economic Observer when I was reading his weekly column back in 2002. But I never expected that he would quit under such circumstances.

internet - QQ-users do not like registration

Global Voices has another update on the registration efforts, forced upon QQ by their local police. A majority of 65 percents of its users would leave the service in stead of registering, a poll says. And a nice story of 'somebody' who supported the indentification efforts, but then issued a false ID number. A case of propaganda going wrong.

economy - As if running a bankrupt car company is not difficult enough

Nanjing Auto has won the bit for MG Rover, but dark clouds are gathering over the already bankrupt legacy they bought, putting at risk just another Chinese effort to go global. The Scotsman has severe doubts:

While Nanjing won the auction, there are four car companies in total claiming rights to various bits of MG Rover - which is casting doubts over what Nanjing has actually bought.

Its Shanghai competitor continues the struggle:

SAIC argues that the MGs are derivative from the Rovers, so it is impossible to build the MG models without infringing its intellectual property. Nanjing, and the administrators, disagree. Furthermore, SAIC owns the intellectual property to the engines that power most of these cars, but Nanjing owns the equipment that builds them.

On top of that Japan's Honda and German's BMW claim also stakes. Nanjing might not build many cars in the UK, the paper says.

internet - Weblogger Hu Yong speaking in Hong Kong

Hu Yong, producer at CCTV channel two and director at China Value, will speak on August 4 at the Journalism and Media Studies Centre on 'weblogging in China' (in putonghua).
Time: 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. Venue: Room CW301, HKU SPACE Wanchai Learning Centre, 3/F CausewayCentre, 28 Harbour Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong (Exit A5, Wanchai MTR Station).
From the invitation:

As an emerging form of global dialogue, blogs are gathering togetherfresh and personal voices. Given the right conditions, Chinese blogs should play an important role in this global conversation.