Once again China evokes that the international community has no right to question the sovereignty of state power. Ai Weiwei is being held for investigation of unclear charges. While human rights activists have been lobbying on his behalf. The Chinese state simply regards this a family affair, to which the world should not be privy. Here's the Daily Times article.
This reminds we about the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, that China took as a slap to the face again sighting that the International community has to right to stir domestic trouble.
This for me is just ringing the tension of China believing in harmonious society where the only good disagreements are none at all.In Chinese society the state is the center actor of all course and the collective good is the only good. That is why someone like Weiwei does not fit in. They are taking an individual stance in a collective country.
Though perhaps, China will practice what it preaches and continue to shy away from criticizing other states in their actions in the domestic sphere. However, is that what anyone but a dictator would want?
The spiral of silence can get deadly.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
China’s military, under fire over transparency, seeks to build trust with neighbors
In the article"China's military, under fire over transparency, seeks to build trust with neighbors" produced February, March 31st addresses the military tensions in the South China Sea are becoming increasingly tense as China's Military continues to grow and develop. For surrounding nations China's increased military presents in the area through development of new weapons such as the "carrier-killer" missile developments and China's plant to launch up to five aircraft carriers in the coming years have become a non-ignorable issue for the U.S. For other Asian nations such as Japan and Taiwan the increase encounters such as when "China’s State Oceanic Administration flew within 230 feet (70 meters) of a Japanese destroyer as it was patrolling near a disputed area," have cause anxiety and protest. Straining political relations between the neighboring countries, who have become leery of China's lack of transparency in regards to its intentions of its military build up.
China claims that these tactics are meant as "stronger assertions of sovereignty claims" and have proven a new challenge to Chinese diplomacy. In recognition of the need to increase transparency and increase communications, "the defense report included for the first time a separate section on military confidence building, highlighting defense consultations, joint training missions and exchanges between border units". Stating in the report that it "is pursuing such steps as “an effective way to maintain national security and development, and safeguard regional peace and stability.”
However, China's long standing disapproval of U.S.-Taiwan relations continues to be used as an effective measure to solidify the People's Liberation Army reluctance to increasing its contact with Washington. "Beijing cut off formal exchanges in anger over a $6.4 billion arms package offered to Taiwan last year, although the defense paper said the two sides are now “maintaining effective dialogues and communications after various ups and downs.” The result is a complex lack of transparency between what military reports are saying and what actions are actually occurring leaving the U.S. and other nations to ponder the true meaning behind China's new military strength.
Full article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-military-under-fire-over-transparency-seeks-to-build-trust-with-neighbors/2011/03/30/AFh06C6B_story.html
China claims that these tactics are meant as "stronger assertions of sovereignty claims" and have proven a new challenge to Chinese diplomacy. In recognition of the need to increase transparency and increase communications, "the defense report included for the first time a separate section on military confidence building, highlighting defense consultations, joint training missions and exchanges between border units". Stating in the report that it "is pursuing such steps as “an effective way to maintain national security and development, and safeguard regional peace and stability.”
However, China's long standing disapproval of U.S.-Taiwan relations continues to be used as an effective measure to solidify the People's Liberation Army reluctance to increasing its contact with Washington. "Beijing cut off formal exchanges in anger over a $6.4 billion arms package offered to Taiwan last year, although the defense paper said the two sides are now “maintaining effective dialogues and communications after various ups and downs.” The result is a complex lack of transparency between what military reports are saying and what actions are actually occurring leaving the U.S. and other nations to ponder the true meaning behind China's new military strength.
Full article at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/chinas-military-under-fire-over-transparency-seeks-to-build-trust-with-neighbors/2011/03/30/AFh06C6B_story.html
A short history of free speech in China
200 BC
The legacy of Confucius
From 200 BC to the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese statecraft was based on the ideas of Confucius, a political thinker who had lived in the 5th century BC. Confucian thinking stressed ethics. It regarded order and stability as essential to enable people to behave in a moral way. Despising violence and force, it also looked down upon profit and commerce. China did not develop an idea of rights that were inherent and natural to the individual as had arisen in Western Europe. However, the ideally organized Confucian society was supposed to provide social welfare and just treatment. People were expected to know their place--kings ruled over subjects, fathers over children, husbands over wives. The powerful were expected to behave with benevolence and failure to do so could result in forfeiture of power. Of course, the reality was often different. Nevertheless, for much of the first two millennia AD, this system allowed a civilization to flourish and a variety of thinkers of many persuasions to debate ideas.
1842
Imperialism and new thinking
China's relations with the outside world changed profoundly in the 19th century as European empires expanded. Britain and China clashed in the Opium War, culminating in the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842--a humiliating agreement forcing China to open up territory and trading rights to the West. These 'unequal treaties' have not been forgotten even today, and shape debates about free trade and globalization. For most of the next century, portions of Chinese territory were under foreign control. It was often in the imperialist-controlled areas where China's dissidents hid from their own governments and published their radical thoughts.
Imperialism had a profound effect on political thinkers in late 19th and early 20th century China as they encountered liberalism, social Darwinism and Christianity. Yan Fu drew on ideas of evolution to argue that China was a nation struggling against others for survival. Thinkers argued for a greater role for individual rights than in pre-modern China, but also valued collective action. The Qing (pronounced 'ching') dynasty--initially ambivalent about these reforms--swiftly changed tack after various military defeats between 1895 and 1900, and tried to carve out a new role for China as one sovereign state among many. Popular discontent was too great to save the dynasty, and it was swept away in the revolution of 1911. China was officially reconstituted as a modern republic at the start of 1912.
1919
The May Fourth Movement
On 4 May 1919, 3,000 students demonstrated at the Tian'anmen, the gate at the front of the Forbidden City in Beijing (the palace complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties). Incensed at the news that the Treaty of Versailles was not going to hand back former German colonies on Chinese soil, but award them to Japan instead, they burnt down the house of a pro-Japanese government minister. This one demonstration, lasting only a few hours, remains legendary. Called the 'May Fourth Movement', it became shorthand for perhaps the most liberal and fruitful period in modern Chinese history.
Between 1915 and the early 1930s reform-minded Chinese looked in every possible direction for solutions to the twin problems of militarism and imperialism that they felt needed to be overcome to 'save the nation'. The most radical--including members of the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--argued that Confucianism was at the root of China's problems and must be utterly rejected. Overall, the era was shaped by a shared agenda among reformers for 'science and democracy'. But the promise of the May Fourth era was dealt a crushing blow by the horrifying Japanese war against China (1937-45), which killed more than 20 million Chinese and hardened political attitudes against pluralism.
1949
Mao Zedong and 'democratic dictatorship'
Mao Zedong--who would rule all of China for more than a quarter-century--left his southern rural home as a young man and became involved in the May Fourth Movement while working in the Beijing University library. He was a founding member of the CCP in 1921 and followed it through its persecution by the Nationalist Government (founded by Chiang Kaishek in 1927), the Long March northwards (1934-35), the war with Japan (1937-45), and then the civil war with the Nationalists (1946-49).
The CCP's adoption of the Bolshevik ideas of 'democratic dictatorship' meant that open dialogue within the Party became restricted. After the CCP's victory in 1949, the tentative moves toward freedom of speech--already restricted by the war with Japan--were mostly cut off. There were short windows of opportunity, such as the Hundred Flowers Movement in May 1957, when the public were encouraged by Mao to speak out about problems. But when the criticisms turned out to be more savage than expected, the Movement was ended and millions of critics were sent into internal exile. The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) sought to encourage the young and re-energize Mao's revolutionary vision. In the process it fuelled a near-theological cult of Mao's personality and created an atmosphere of paranoia that led to denunciations, murders and suicides across China. Schools and universities were shut down, thereby robbing a generation of its chance of education.
1976
Deng Xiaoping: China opens for business
The death of Mao in 1976 was followed swiftly by the arrest of the 'Gang of Four', the ultra-radical supporters of Cultural Revolution policies. People who had been persecuted were rehabilitated, and a genre of writing known as 'scar' literature allowed people to express their sufferings. Deng Xiaoping--one of the longest survivors in the CCP--eased himself into paramount power by 1978, and until the early 1990s was the prime force behind China's economic reforms.
Deng believed that the nation's progress was dependent on a well-educated population. As part of the reform process, official sanction was given to more open debate and discussion. Throughout the 1980s, students demonstrated publicly, newspapers and radio shows began to discuss social problems openly, and it became possible once again to travel and study abroad. The daring documentary 'River Elegy' (Heshang) was broadcast on national Chinese television in 1988, arguing that China had been led astray by Mao, the false 'peasant emperor', and that the country needed to return to the message of the May Fourth Movement--'science and democracy'.
1989
Tian'anmen Square
By 1989, Deng's economic reforms had contributed to massive growth, but had also led to spiralling inflation and discontent. Demonstrations of workers and students demanding more democracy appeared in many cities in the spring of 1989. While most were dispelled peacefully, Tian'anmen Square in Beijing proved the exception. With up to a million protesters at its height, this demonstration was co-ordinated to start on the 70th anniversary of the original May Fourth demonstration to point out that the CCP's founders (some of whose contemporaries were now China's leaders) had once been angry radicals standing in the same spot seven decades before. Despite attempts to negotiate, the demonstrations were ended with bloodshed when tanks rolled into the Square on the night of 4 June.
Tian'anmen Square now shapes popular understanding of the Chinese Government in the West. However, it was not the end of openness in China (although the period from 1989-92 was highly repressive). China is slowly opening up a space for discussion in a way that was difficult to imagine in 1989 (see pages 9-12 and 27). Yet this expansion is very clearly within limits.
The legacy of Confucius
From 200 BC to the beginning of the 20th century, Chinese statecraft was based on the ideas of Confucius, a political thinker who had lived in the 5th century BC. Confucian thinking stressed ethics. It regarded order and stability as essential to enable people to behave in a moral way. Despising violence and force, it also looked down upon profit and commerce. China did not develop an idea of rights that were inherent and natural to the individual as had arisen in Western Europe. However, the ideally organized Confucian society was supposed to provide social welfare and just treatment. People were expected to know their place--kings ruled over subjects, fathers over children, husbands over wives. The powerful were expected to behave with benevolence and failure to do so could result in forfeiture of power. Of course, the reality was often different. Nevertheless, for much of the first two millennia AD, this system allowed a civilization to flourish and a variety of thinkers of many persuasions to debate ideas.
1842
Imperialism and new thinking
China's relations with the outside world changed profoundly in the 19th century as European empires expanded. Britain and China clashed in the Opium War, culminating in the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842--a humiliating agreement forcing China to open up territory and trading rights to the West. These 'unequal treaties' have not been forgotten even today, and shape debates about free trade and globalization. For most of the next century, portions of Chinese territory were under foreign control. It was often in the imperialist-controlled areas where China's dissidents hid from their own governments and published their radical thoughts.
Imperialism had a profound effect on political thinkers in late 19th and early 20th century China as they encountered liberalism, social Darwinism and Christianity. Yan Fu drew on ideas of evolution to argue that China was a nation struggling against others for survival. Thinkers argued for a greater role for individual rights than in pre-modern China, but also valued collective action. The Qing (pronounced 'ching') dynasty--initially ambivalent about these reforms--swiftly changed tack after various military defeats between 1895 and 1900, and tried to carve out a new role for China as one sovereign state among many. Popular discontent was too great to save the dynasty, and it was swept away in the revolution of 1911. China was officially reconstituted as a modern republic at the start of 1912.
1919
The May Fourth Movement
On 4 May 1919, 3,000 students demonstrated at the Tian'anmen, the gate at the front of the Forbidden City in Beijing (the palace complex of the Ming and Qing dynasties). Incensed at the news that the Treaty of Versailles was not going to hand back former German colonies on Chinese soil, but award them to Japan instead, they burnt down the house of a pro-Japanese government minister. This one demonstration, lasting only a few hours, remains legendary. Called the 'May Fourth Movement', it became shorthand for perhaps the most liberal and fruitful period in modern Chinese history.
Between 1915 and the early 1930s reform-minded Chinese looked in every possible direction for solutions to the twin problems of militarism and imperialism that they felt needed to be overcome to 'save the nation'. The most radical--including members of the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP)--argued that Confucianism was at the root of China's problems and must be utterly rejected. Overall, the era was shaped by a shared agenda among reformers for 'science and democracy'. But the promise of the May Fourth era was dealt a crushing blow by the horrifying Japanese war against China (1937-45), which killed more than 20 million Chinese and hardened political attitudes against pluralism.
1949
Mao Zedong and 'democratic dictatorship'
Mao Zedong--who would rule all of China for more than a quarter-century--left his southern rural home as a young man and became involved in the May Fourth Movement while working in the Beijing University library. He was a founding member of the CCP in 1921 and followed it through its persecution by the Nationalist Government (founded by Chiang Kaishek in 1927), the Long March northwards (1934-35), the war with Japan (1937-45), and then the civil war with the Nationalists (1946-49).
The CCP's adoption of the Bolshevik ideas of 'democratic dictatorship' meant that open dialogue within the Party became restricted. After the CCP's victory in 1949, the tentative moves toward freedom of speech--already restricted by the war with Japan--were mostly cut off. There were short windows of opportunity, such as the Hundred Flowers Movement in May 1957, when the public were encouraged by Mao to speak out about problems. But when the criticisms turned out to be more savage than expected, the Movement was ended and millions of critics were sent into internal exile. The Cultural Revolution (1966-76) sought to encourage the young and re-energize Mao's revolutionary vision. In the process it fuelled a near-theological cult of Mao's personality and created an atmosphere of paranoia that led to denunciations, murders and suicides across China. Schools and universities were shut down, thereby robbing a generation of its chance of education.
1976
Deng Xiaoping: China opens for business
The death of Mao in 1976 was followed swiftly by the arrest of the 'Gang of Four', the ultra-radical supporters of Cultural Revolution policies. People who had been persecuted were rehabilitated, and a genre of writing known as 'scar' literature allowed people to express their sufferings. Deng Xiaoping--one of the longest survivors in the CCP--eased himself into paramount power by 1978, and until the early 1990s was the prime force behind China's economic reforms.
Deng believed that the nation's progress was dependent on a well-educated population. As part of the reform process, official sanction was given to more open debate and discussion. Throughout the 1980s, students demonstrated publicly, newspapers and radio shows began to discuss social problems openly, and it became possible once again to travel and study abroad. The daring documentary 'River Elegy' (Heshang) was broadcast on national Chinese television in 1988, arguing that China had been led astray by Mao, the false 'peasant emperor', and that the country needed to return to the message of the May Fourth Movement--'science and democracy'.
1989
Tian'anmen Square
By 1989, Deng's economic reforms had contributed to massive growth, but had also led to spiralling inflation and discontent. Demonstrations of workers and students demanding more democracy appeared in many cities in the spring of 1989. While most were dispelled peacefully, Tian'anmen Square in Beijing proved the exception. With up to a million protesters at its height, this demonstration was co-ordinated to start on the 70th anniversary of the original May Fourth demonstration to point out that the CCP's founders (some of whose contemporaries were now China's leaders) had once been angry radicals standing in the same spot seven decades before. Despite attempts to negotiate, the demonstrations were ended with bloodshed when tanks rolled into the Square on the night of 4 June.
Tian'anmen Square now shapes popular understanding of the Chinese Government in the West. However, it was not the end of openness in China (although the period from 1989-92 was highly repressive). China is slowly opening up a space for discussion in a way that was difficult to imagine in 1989 (see pages 9-12 and 27). Yet this expansion is very clearly within limits.
Committee to Protect Journalists: Mainstream journalists also targeted in China crackdown
New York, March 30, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by the dismissal of two Guangzhou-based journalists who advocate for political reform amid tightening restrictions on free expression. While several bloggers and activists have disappeared or been detained in the last month after anonymous calls for demonstrations in support of political reform were published online, journalists in traditional media are now also being targeted, CPJ said.
Time Weekly opinion editor Peng Xiaoyun reported on her Twitter account Monday that she had received an official dismissal notice from the Time Weekly company, which operates under the Guangdong Provincial Publishing Group. International news reports said Peng had taken "involuntary leave" in January after including controversial figures, such as jailed food safety advocate Zhao Lianhai, in a December 2010 retrospective of 100 influential contemporary figures.
In a separate case, outspoken Southern Weekend commentator Chen Ming, who publishes under the name Xiao Shu, also announced Monday via his local Sina microblog that he was taking a two-year sabbatical. The term "sabbatical" was likely a euphemism for permanent notice since journalists have to resign after six months on leave, U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported. The Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post confirmed the news with an unnamed former colleague of Chen's.
RFA said the weekly, which is published by the Southern Media Group, had withdrawn Chen's column in 2010. Hong Kong University's China Media Project website published an example of his writing in October 2010 titled "Anyuanding, and why political reform can't wait." The Southern Media Group also let high-profile commentator Zhang Ping, who writes under the pen name Chang Ping, go in January after pressure from local propaganda authorities.
"In their drive to stifle public discussion, China's propaganda authorities are depriving the people of some of the country's most forward-thinking opinions," said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. "Not just bloggers and activists who straddle the realms of politics and journalism, but mainstream journalists who have long operated in traditional Chinese media are now being targeted."
Dismissals, reshuffles, and fines are used as punitive measures against professional journalists and editors who flout government reporting restrictions or are perceived as consistently critical, according to CPJ research. Authorities rarely provide specific reasons for the action. Peng Xiaoyun's notice did not explain the motive for discharging her, she said on Twitter. Because those involved often downplay reprimands to preserve their jobs, the causes and effects of the practice are difficult to monitor. Chen Ming declined an interview with RFA.
Zhang has done interviews about what happened since he was sacked, including with a supplement of Hong Kong's Ming Pao newspaper and with Beijing-based English-language media blog Danwei. Before losing his position, he told Danwei, "The newspaper demanded that I don't take any interviews, and I was willing to compromise in order to have the opportunity of staying at the newspaper. This time I have been told to leave the newspaper, naturally I don't have that layer of restraint."
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Baidu Deleted Pirated Works!
I posted an article earlier in the semester where the US claimed that Baidu was promoting pirated information. Apparently, they were correct, and now Baidu is attempting to rectify the issue.
Baidu deleted 2.8 million online written works from it's Baidu Wenku--or online library--due to copyright infringement. Basically the Baidu Wenku is a peer to peer library system where the users can upload or download literary works. 40 plus authors claimed Baidu listed their works without permission.
This obviously takes in to account China's faulty intellectual property rights protection. Typically things like this would not be addressed, but it's possible that since Baidu is the largest search engine and is typically under scrutiny, that they addressed the issue. It's also interesting that this happened recently after America decides to not pass a similar Google literary library.
Behind the 'Great Firewall': China's 'first blogger' speaks out
A new insight into China's battle with censorship over the internet is revealed by the influential blogger Isaac Mao who suggests that, "The battle of Chinese censors to block political commentary on the internet is akin to "a snake swallowing its own tail". Mao who started blogging in 2002 from behind China's "Great Firewall", on the most restrictive internet environments in the world, gives an interesting insight into the restrictive nature of China's government towards individual speech and internet user rights.
He suggests that the Government's restrictive nature may be a result of trying "to slow down people's communication", citing the censorship of keywords and access to "g-mail" accounts. Hence Mao's analogy of "a snake swallowing its own tail because the snake is trying to find the food and attack, but eventually he found his own tail." He brings up the issues with Domestic users problems accessing Google's Gmail in China as a way "to rest the tolerance of the people". He suggests that as a result of governmental restrictions, they are stifling people's creativity and access to information. Though Mao contradicts this to some degree denoting the rise in creative measures by Netizens and VPN users to circumnavigate government restrictions with the use of concepts embedded into other contexts,such as the word "Jasmine" being used in the phrase "a cup of Jasmine tea" to address the issues of the attempted Jasmine Revolution by Netizens early this month.
Mao however does not address the issue in terms of long standing internet and individual speech policies but instead suggests a balance be attempted between users and the government, "it is a kind of test from the authorities, to try to see if this type of new censorship strategy could cause economic consequences,". Thus, perhaps suggesting a formal balance between the focus on development through economic growth that permeates Chinese national policy, while enabling citizens to have access to information and to communicate their daily lives to the outside world. However this may prove to be more difficult as Mao denotes, "[t]he worst thing would be if China cut off the whole internet, and made itself into an intranet. We don't want to see that day coming," Mao said. "So we try to persuade the authorities that it will hurt the whole country's development in the future, and the economy eventually."
For the video Interview and article please see: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/03/28/China.blogger.mao/index.html?iref=allsearch
He suggests that the Government's restrictive nature may be a result of trying "to slow down people's communication", citing the censorship of keywords and access to "g-mail" accounts. Hence Mao's analogy of "a snake swallowing its own tail because the snake is trying to find the food and attack, but eventually he found his own tail." He brings up the issues with Domestic users problems accessing Google's Gmail in China as a way "to rest the tolerance of the people". He suggests that as a result of governmental restrictions, they are stifling people's creativity and access to information. Though Mao contradicts this to some degree denoting the rise in creative measures by Netizens and VPN users to circumnavigate government restrictions with the use of concepts embedded into other contexts,such as the word "Jasmine" being used in the phrase "a cup of Jasmine tea" to address the issues of the attempted Jasmine Revolution by Netizens early this month.
Mao however does not address the issue in terms of long standing internet and individual speech policies but instead suggests a balance be attempted between users and the government, "it is a kind of test from the authorities, to try to see if this type of new censorship strategy could cause economic consequences,". Thus, perhaps suggesting a formal balance between the focus on development through economic growth that permeates Chinese national policy, while enabling citizens to have access to information and to communicate their daily lives to the outside world. However this may prove to be more difficult as Mao denotes, "[t]he worst thing would be if China cut off the whole internet, and made itself into an intranet. We don't want to see that day coming," Mao said. "So we try to persuade the authorities that it will hurt the whole country's development in the future, and the economy eventually."
For the video Interview and article please see: http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/03/28/China.blogger.mao/index.html?iref=allsearch
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
China’s role in Africa--Wikileaks
There is no doubt that China has emerged as an important economic power, with China’s soaring economic power, China becomes more confident and become a high-profiled investor in Africa.
But it seems the international community is not happy with China’s heavy presence in Africa. Many Western companies complain that China’s way of doing business is going to push them lose ground in Africa. According to the article, Africa: China Dismisses U.S. Claims Over Continent, it says that leaked US diplomatic cables in 2007 describing China using bribes, cut-throat pricing strategies and coercion through senior government officials to win lucrative deals in the sector. So definitely, many Western companies criticize China practicing unfair trade to win deals.
Chinese ambassador to Kenya told a continental meeting of researchers in Nairobi that China is not an exploiter and recolonizing Africa. Ambassador also emphasized that the similar history (Both China and Africa suffered the colonialist invasion and internal disorders) shared by African countries and China will keep strengthen the tie between China-Africa relations.
As we discussed in class that many state-owned-enterprises (SOE) in China started their business to build basic infrastructure such as road, dam and bridges for African countries, but in return, China is signing up contracts with those countries to have the license for natural resources mining. But the wikileaks seems to de-legitimize China’s economic development model. It depicts the way how Chinese companies doing business is against the rule of law, not based on the transparent bidding. The state-dominated China model of development could cause more corruption in those poorest parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America—where the rule of law often simply does not exist. China’s international aid will also conflict with other international donors who support good governance and pay more attention to capacity building instead of infrastructure construction.
Tie China’s foreign aid into international communication is how China should collaborate with other international actors to build up common ground , to promote China’s positive image to its foreign public. Only by doing that, China can create economic win-win cooperation with other governments.
I also think in order to sustain the good relationship with Africa, China needs to be very cautious about its foreign policy, because it is very important to establish mutual-trust between China and Africa. After all, African countries play a vital role to support China’s international status.
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