CHINA – POLITICS
Dalian public protest against PX plant
On August 8th, Typhoon Muifa smashed through the protecting wall of a paraxylene (PX, a mildly toxic chemical used to make polyester) plant in Dalian. It raised online discussions of some terrifying “what if” predictions. Anonymous online calls to stroll (a euphemism in China for protest) to People’s Square to “fly kite” circulated on the internet.
On August 14th Sunday, about 10,000 people gathered on some main roads in the morning, most of whom were young and middle-aged, some were well prepared, carrying big banners saying “We want to live, give Dalian back to us”, “Say no to PX”, “PX, get out” and wearing face masks printed no-entry sigh over the letters “PX”. The crowd marched to the People’s Square. At 10:30am, the city’s party chief Tang Jun (唐军) and its mayor Li Wancai (李万才) showed up on top of a police car, telling people that the government had decided to relocate the plant and asked people to leave. But they were greeted by disdainful chants.
In the afternoon, the government issued a statement via Xinhua saying the plant was ordered to halt production immediately and will be relocated as soon as possible, which finally convinced the public.
From the high-speed rail crash to Guo Meimei and the Red Cross, and now the Dalian protest, the social media has been seen as a more and more important and powerful tool for the public to supervise the government. The government for sure has noticed that and the control on social media like Weibo has become tighter. Weibo posts on the Dalian protest were all deleted and users still can’t search words like “PX” and even “stroll”. Relevant reports and updates can still be seen on state media, including Xinhua, People’s Daily online and China Daily.
Dalian’s poison protest is the second successful case of peaceful protest against toxic chemical projects near residential areas. The first case was in 2007 in Xiamen. Tens of thousands of citizens rallied, local officials then promised to locate the plant elsewhere. The Xiamen case is cited as the first display of a growing willingness of urban Chinese to confront officials over environmental issues.
Beijing issues 2nd white paper to ease concerns about China’s rise, at the same time vows to safeguard its core interests
Beijing on September 6th issued a white paper “China’s Peaceful Development”, which vows to the world that “peaceful development is at the core of China’s vision of its future and previous practices by other rising powers will not be repeated”. Fu Mengzi, Professor of the China Institute of Contemporary International Studies, told the South China Morning Post that “the paper was designed to ease international concerns about China’s rise.”
For first time, China stated clearly its six core national interests: sovereignty, national security, territorial integrity, national reunification, China’s political system and overall social stability, and the basic safeguards for ensuring sustainable economic and social development. Meng Xiangqing (孟祥青), deputy director of the Institute for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, said there was no clear definition of China’s national interests in political and academic circles in the past 20 years, it’s important that now we tell our people and the world what China’s bottom line is.5
Southern Metropolis Daily pointed out that for the first time, China’s official document used “Actively living up to international responsibility” as a foreign policy guideline, while traditionally, “Keep a low profile (or ‘hide its light’ 韬光养晦)”, the guideline Deng Xiaoping laid out for China’s foreign policy was the most cited. The newspaper quoted scholars Gong Shaopeng (宫少朋) and Wang Yizhou (王逸舟) as saying that it’s not a contradiction between the two because the new guideline is about China’s responsibilities as a member of the international society, the world needs China to get more involved in international affairs. Deng’s theory used to be interpreted as “hide one’s capacities and bide one’s time” but it’s incorrect, the idiom means keeping a low profile, which will never outdate as a foreign policy guideline.
This was China’s second white paper on peaceful development. The first one was issued in 2005.
Loving heart or technique? Chinese dilemma on helping fallen elderly
Thirty years ago, nobody would have thought such a debate could go viral on the Chinese internet.
On September 4th, an 88 year-old man in Wuhan fell in the street and injured his nose. But nobody lent a hand to him in the whole hour while he was lying on the ground. He suffocated on his own blood. Later the media found that the spot was only less than 100 meters away from his home. A week before that, on August 26th, bus driver Yin Hongbin in Nantong city saw an old lady lying on an overpass when he drove his bus by. Yin pulled over his bus and went to help the old lady to stand up with the ticket seller, they left after a villager who’s acquainted with the lady came to pick her up. The injured woman Shi and her son later reported to the police that it’s the bus driver who knocked her off. Lucky the video camera at the front of the bus recorded everything and the woman soon apologized.
The netizens expressed huge sympathy, to both the old man and the bystanders. Some say you can only do good when there’s a video camera nearby. Many say they wouldn’t raise a hand either as they are afraid of extortion. An online survey by Tencent shows that 17.8% of the 15,000 respondents would not help, 23.8% want to help but fear of extortion, while only 2.9% said they would definitely help no matter what.
On September 6th, the Ministry of Health issued a 41-page document “Technical Guidelines for Preventing and Treating Falls by the Elderly”, though the media said the document had been prepared for years, the timing was unfortunate; two days after the Wuhan man suffocated in the street. A Bloomberg article said “the vast majority of Chinese netizens and editorialists interpreted it as a tone-deaf, technocratic response to what many perceive as three decades of decay in traditional Chinese values that began when the county embraced capitalism.”
Media asked what happened in the past few decades that made people lose their sense of responsibility to others. Some answered “money” and said helping a fallen senior is a risky investment, you only get a “Xie xie” if it ends well, you have to pay huge compensation if it ends badly.
Or, some call this the “sequelae of Peng Yu case”. In 2006 in Nanjing, 65 year-old Xu Shoulan fell over when trying to get on a bus. A man named Peng Yu (彭宇) helped her up but was later accused by the woman of pushing her down. The court ordered Peng to pay the woman 45,876 yuan as compensation and to cover 40% of her medical costs. It’s said that after Peng Yu case, in Nanjing there were many cases of fallen elderly having trouble getting help. A man in his 80s who fell over on his way to get breakfast had to yell, “No one knocked me off, I fell over myself, help!”
Guangzhou: Independent candidates failed to move forward
More and more independent candidates who previously announced their candidacy for seats at the local-level People’s Congress quit the race under pressure, including Shanghai-based writer Xia Shang (夏商) and Chengdu-based blogger Li Chengpeng (李承鹏). According to Ming Pao, the pressure is from Wu Bangguo, chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. He ordered local governments to keep a close eye on the independent candidates and try their best to stop them.
It’s reported that one of the independent candidates Liang Shuxin (梁树新), a resident of Lijiang Neighborhood in Panyu District of Guangzhou, was disqualified from the preliminary round. But eventually he still won 64 votes at the election as according to the law, voters don’t have to vote for the names on the official list. A video posted on Sina showed the moment when the dictrict official announced the elected candidate. When “Wang Bin” was announced as the final winner, sharp and loud questions burst from the crowd: “Where is this person?” “Whom does he represent?” “What’s his/her phone number?” “Who voted for him/her?” “How come more than 200 people here, nobody is clapping for his/her election?”
Renmin University professor Zhang Ming (张鸣) told Ming Pao that the party will have its congressional election next year, so the situation is tense this year, the authorities will try their best to stop the independent candidates.
CHINA – DIPLOMACY
China & Libya: foreign policy dilemma
China was left on an awkward position after the Libyan rebels overtook the capital Tripoli on August 22nd. Now it has to think about whether it should make peace with the National Transitional Council (NTC) to secure its US$18 billion investment there, or to recognise the legitimacy of the NTC which might signal the people at home that rebellion can be justified.
The latest update on the bilateral relations was the revelations of the secret dealings with Gadhafi representatives by some Chinese arms makers. Beijing rarely confirmed the news, though it said the meetings were held without the state’s permission.
The Economist said in an article that the rising power started to knock off the “non-interference” policy on Libya. “Libya presented an unusual combination of challenges for China. These included demand at home for prompt action to ensure the safety of more than 35,000 Chinese working in the country; widespread support among (China-friendly) Arab countries for tough action against Muammar Qaddafi; and economic interests in Libya that might be threatened by supporting the wrong side,” said the article.
Chinese international scholar Wang Yizhou (王逸舟) said in his new book Creative Involvement: China’s New Foreign Policy Orientation, that China’s recent decisions on relations with Libya showed new orientation of its foreign policy. China is trying to play a more positive and creative role in international affairs.
The Chinese media changed their tone slightly when reporting on Libya lately. Since March, CCTV had been standing on Gadhafi’s side, calling Libyan people anti-government forces. Only recently, it changed to “opposition forces”. Xinhua and People’s Daily published articles analysing the “negative effects” of the war and criticized the western countries for manipulating the situation for their own interests. The Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (马朝旭) said on September 1st that China is ready to maintain close contact with NTC and attaches great importance to the NTC’s role in rebuilding Libya.
A Wall Street Journal article found that the two countries may not be as friendly as some assume. The evidences include the close tie between Libya and Taiwan and blocking of the sale of a Canadian oil company to state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.. “When we look at the reality on the ground we find that there is something akin to a Chinese invasion of the African continent… this is something that brings to mind the effects that colonialism had on the African continent,” Libyan Foreign Minister Moussa Kusa said in an interview in 2009.
Calmer South China Sea expected after series of diplomatic visits
Philippine President Benigno S. Aquino III’s paid a visit to China from August 31st – September 3rd, the first such visit since he took office was expected to further promote peace and bilateral trade between the two countries. The two countries issued joint statement on September 1st, vowed to improve stable development of the strategic cooperative relationship in the long term.
The two countries agreed a five-year (2012-2016) development program for trade and economic cooperation that targets enlarging bilateral trade reaching $60 billion by 2016. The two leaders also reiterated their commitment to addressing the disputes through peaceful dialogue, maintaining continued regional peace, security and stability and an environment conducive to economic progress. Both leaders also reaffirmed their commitment to abide by the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea signed by China and the ASEAN member countries in 2002, according to China Daily.
China’s relationship with Vietnam, another country located in the South China Sea region, is also improving after State Councillor Dai Bingguo (戴秉国) paid a five-day visit starting from September 5th. “Stabilizing the South China Sea area is China’s major message to Vietnam, and China is expecting a positive response for further peaceful coexistence,” researcher Zhang Xuegang told China Daily. According to the newspaper, China and Vietnam are in negotiations on an agreement on basic principles guiding the settlement of the maritime issue, and progress has been made. Before Dai’s visit, top-level Sino-Vietnamese military meetings were held in Beijing at the end of August between Vietnamese Deputy Defence Minister Nguyen Chi Vinh and Defence Minister Liang Guanglie and PLA Deputy Chief of Staff Ma Xiaotian. Both sides had pledged to resolve South China Sea disputes through consultations and negotiations. The meetings also cleared the path for a visit by Vietnam’s new top leader Nguyen Phu Trong later this year.
American diplomats impress China with humble image
The new U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke addressed the media on August 14th for the first time in Beijing. Though the Chinese media and public has been focusing on his Chinese-American identity, he pointed out in a speech that he represents America and “America’s promise as a land of freedom, equality, and opportunity”.
Before his arrival in Beijing, Mr. Locke was seen carrying a backpack and buying coffee at the Starbucks in Seattle Airport by a Chinese businessman, who took a photo of Locke and shared it on Weibo. The photo was re-shared by more than 32,000 Weibo users so far and has won him great reputation among the Chinese public as they are used to Chinese officials’ privileges and therefore found the new ambassador’s normal behaviour unusual and respectable.
Three days after Mr. Locked started his new job, Joe Biden, the Vice-President of the U.S. visited China from August 17th to 22nd. He again charmed the Chinese people and media by paying himself for a 79 yuan meal at a small Beijing restaurant. Chinese people were shocked that Mr. Biden, his daughter-in-law, his granddaughter and Mr. and Mrs. Locke together only spent 79 yuan on a meal. Surely, this was the best picture to show the American diplomats are men of the people, which weakened the nationalist sentiment among ordinary Chinese toward America.
Apart from assuring the Chinese people that he’s a humble man, more importantly, he assured the safety of China’s U.S. investments. In a speech he gave at Sichuan University, he said China’s $1.17 trillion in U.S. Treasury securities safe as America’s interest is to protest the value of the assets and bonds which are mostly owned by Americans.
Wall Street Journal said Biden’s main purpose was to get in touch with Xin Jinping, China’s presumed next leader.
China agrees London as offshore trading centre for renminbi
Chinese Vice-Premier Wang Qishan visited the U.K. lately and the two countries issued joint statement on September 8th, stating that both sides “welcomed the private sector interest in developing the offshore [renminbi] market in London and the growth of the market to date.”
Though the development of London as an offshore renminbi market is likely to be long, considered Wang’s probable promotion next year into China’s Politburo Standing Committee, the party’s highest authority, the visit and statement sent some important signals.
Top intellectuals call for intra-party democracy at unofficial seminar
Dozens of elite scholars and top government advisers including Sun Changjiang (孙长江), Jiang Ping (江平), He Weifang (贺卫方), Yu Jianrong (贺卫方) and Ma Licheng (马立诚) attended a seminar on August 27th in Beijing. They warned that the party “faces a legitimacy crisis due to long overdue political reforms and its obsession with stability” and the intra-party democracy is going backwards.
Organized by Hu Deping (胡德平), son of the former party secretary Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), the seminar was officially held to mark the 30th anniversary of a landmark party document denouncing the Cultural Revolution.
Hong Kong Economic Journal said the seminar caused wide attention is also because the attendants talked publicly about Mao’s “leftist mistakes” and the “bitter lessons” from the Cultural Revolution.
Analysts say “it was clearly aimed at rallying support for economic and political reform amid fierce criticism from resurgent conservative leftists”, according to the South China Morning Post.
CHINA – ECONOMY
Wen pledges to regulate prices
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao published an article on the party’s Qiushi magazine, talking about the current economic situation and the government’s relevant policies. “Our country’s economic development continues to face a very complicated, unstable and uncertain environment both at home and abroad. We should keep a sober mind, enhance our awareness of risks, and have full expectations of the complexity and severity of the present situation,” Wen wrote. The government will resolutely implement the property market regulation policy to ensure its effectiveness, Wen said.
Inflation is a long-term problem for China
The National Bureau of Statistics announced in early September that the CPI rose 6.2% from August, which is slightly lower compare with a 6.5% rise for July. Inflation is “down but not out”, said analysts, it’s likely to remain a long-term problem for China’s economy. Food prices, which account for about 1/3 of the CPI was seen a 13.4% year on year jump in August. But inflation for goods other than food rose to 3% in August, a 10-year high.
Premier Wen Jiabao promised to put combating inflation the government’s top priority in an article he wrote forQiushi magazine.
CHINA – CULTURE
8th Mao Dun Prize result highlights changes within the system
The Eighth Mao Dun Literature Prize winners were announce on August 21st, they were You Are on the Highlandby Zhang Wei, Sky Walker by Liu Xinglong, Frog by Mo Yan, Massage by Bi Feiyu, and A Sentence Is Worth Thousands by Liu Zhenyun.
The credibility of the prize was questioned as most of the winners are officials of local or national writers’ associations while the prize is administered by the Chinese Writers’ Association.
But an editorial on China Newsweek expressed a different perspective. It said the reason for such result is that in the past one or two decades, outstanding writers from various backgrounds have been invited into the system to become officials in all levels of writers’ associations. There’s nothing odd for them to be nominated for all kinds of literature awards or even win them. The new faces in the system show the transformation of the literature cycles. In the past thirty years, real literature has grown and prospered in the soil of the society. Now what the writers’ association and Mao Dun prize need to do is to face the reality and adapt to it.
Established in 1982, the Mao Dun Literature Prize is one of China’s most prestigious literature prizes.
Poet Bei Dao invited to China after blacklisted for two decades
Poet Bei Dao was recently invited to attend a poem festival in Qinghai, which was the first time he was invited to an official activity since he was blacklisted in 1989.
According to media’s reports, he attended the festival in Qinghai and then went to Beijing to meet his poet friend Ouyang Jianghe. Official media including Xinhua, China Daily and Global Times all reported his return. Xinhua’s 1590-charactered interview itself was widely reported by overseas media as a sign of change.
Writer, chairwoman of Writers Association of China Tie Ning was said lobbied for Bei Dao’s return.
As a leading poet in the 80s, his poems and the Jintian magazine he co-founded with Mang Ke played an irreplaceable role in the pro-democracy movements in the late 80s.
Liao Yiwu escapes to Germany
Writer, poet Liao Yiwu was reported escaped from China and arrived Germany on July 6th. Liao was seen as a dissident by the Chinese government because of his involvement in the pro-democracy movements since the 80s and his life in China was closely monitored. He recently published his new book God Is Red: The Secret Story of How Christianity Survived and Flourished in Communist China.
New film: The Piano in a Factory
As the director-screenwriter for the film, Zhang Meng (张猛) received positive comments from professional critics, media and the film’s small audience.
The film tells a story of an unemployed father who built a steel piano for his daughter from old factory remains.
While a lot categorize it as an art film, Zhang said it’s a serious realism film. The story idea came from his own experience in the 90s’ Shenyang, a northeastern industrial city where he grew up. Many of his relatives used to be workers in local steel factories. But in the 1990s, many state-owned factories in Shenyang suddenly closed and all the workers lost their jobs. Zhang still remembers the big crowds of unemployed skilled workers on the used-to-be-empty streets, wandering around or selling tools stolen from their old factories to make a living. The workers in the film who helped the father to build the piano are such a group, Zhang Meng said in a Southern Weekendinterview, the glory of the working class used to shine on their heads, but when it suddenly disappeared, they lost their direction.
China Youth Daily’s review on this film made an attempt to draw a picture of the workers who lost their jobs during the reform of the state owned enterprises in the 90s. It cited economist Wu Xiaobo (吴晓波) as saying China’s prosperity is built on the sacrifice of the whole generation of those industrial workers. A review on the FT Chinese website said the box office takings of 4 million yuan showed the prosperity of the film industry in China is only superficial. With tens of billions’ annual box office and tons of investment money looking for projects, such a good film was almost refused by the theatres if not for the good comments it received beforehand.
New film: Seediq Bale
The 4.5-hour long film made by Taiwan director Wei Te-sheng (魏德胜) failed to win the top award at Venice, but it broke the record for single day box office in Taiwan. The box office of the first screening on September 10threached NT$230 million (US$787,617), which is equivalent to each person in Taiwan spending one dollar to support the film.
The film tells a story of Seediq warriors (Taiwanese aboriginal people) fight against the Japanese invaders during the Japanese rule of Taiwan. In order to be loyal to the history, the director didn’t avoid the killing and death scenes in the film. He explained that different nations have different understandings and paths to realize freedom. For the Seediq people, the freedom of next life may be more important.
The film was harshly criticized on the mainland. The media said violence doesn’t make a great film and the opinions expressed in the film like “Japanese are evil, they should all be killed” make the film a copy of history and an outlet for hatred. It’s an advocacy of narrow-minded nationalism.
HONG KONG – POLITICS
Li Keqiang brings confidence in economy and the opposite in political future
The Chinese Vice President Li Keqiang visited Hong Kong in mid August and announced measures to boost Hong Kong’s economy, including allowing Hong Kong financial companies to invest up to RMB20 bln (US$3.1 bln) in mainland securities and Chinese companies to raise up to Rmb50 bln in “dim sum” bonds in Hong Kong. Beijing also placed a RMB20 bln ($3.1bn) bond in Hong Kong during Li’s three-day visit, the biggest offshore renminbi offering so far. Julia Leung, under-secretary for financial services and the treasury in Hong Kong told the FT that the measures will increase the flows of renminbi in both directions and help companies on both sides of the border to manage foreign exchange risk without adding to inflationary pressures in China.
But some unexpected consequences associated with his visit made the trip rather worrying than cheering. The local police were accused of using overly heavy security at the Hong Kong University’s ceremony that Li attended, setting up “core security zone” on campus and even detained three protesting students, which could constitute false imprisonment. The university and police were also criticized for blocking students, alumni, staff and the public who didn’t have invitations. They were also accused of trying to stop a video reporter from shooting, as well as taking away a protesting resident wearing a t-shirt printed with “Rehabilitate June 4th”. The students’ treatment prompted huge anger in the society and an alumni backlash. Some 270 alumni took out a front page newspaper advertisement a week later, denouncing the so-called 818 incident. Photo journalists also protested to back the maltreated reporter. Jasper Tsang, the pro-Beijing president of the Legislative Council said, “This storm tells us there is still a difference between the values held by Hong Kong and the beliefs of our central government.”
Hong Kong Commissioner of Police Tsang Wai-hung later explained that their “top priority is to ensure the safety of visiting VIPs” and denied all the accusations from the public, media and the Pan-Democrats.
A HKU document disclosed recently showed that the police asked for the protest zone to be set well away from the ceremony venue during Li’s visit in August, though the document also showed that the university asked that Li should be able to see the protesters, the request was refused for security concerns.
Documents submitted to Legco show the university had insisted that Li Keqiang be able to see any protests that took place there during his recent visit, according to RTHK.
TAIWAN
Tsai has to try harder to ease China and U.S. worries over cross-strait relations
Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party recently issued DPP’s 10-year blueprint. DPP’s Chairman Tsai Ing-wen, Ma Ying-jeou’s main competitor in next January’s presidential election, vowed to revisit the island’s free-trade pact with the mainland and press Beijing to accept “real soveignty” for the island, she also suggested to replace the 1992 Consensus with a Taiwan Consensus.
The ruling Kuomintang has used 1992 Consensus as the foundation for a series of economic agreements with the mainland and kept cross-strait ties under the policy of ‘”no unification, no independence, no use of force”, while its opposition has long questioned it, though it’s the first time Tsai detailed her views on cross-strait relations since she became the DPP’s presidential candidate.
Professor Xu Bodong of Beijing Union University told the South China Morning Post that mainland leaders would likely ignore Tsai’s words as they don’t think she will win the election. Li Jiaquan (李家泉), a researcher with the CASS, said “one China” is the bottom line for the mainland, if Tsai took office next year, the stable development cross-strait relations will surely be affected.
But some analysts say Tsai and DPP already softened the tone with Tsai promising people in Taiwan and China a harmonious and stable future if she is elected president. Tsai also promised to support the continued implementation of the Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) – one of several deals with the mainland reached under Ma.
The wording of the blueprint is also moderate in describing cross-strait relations, said the South China Morning Post. Taiwan political commentator Tang Hsiung-lung said it indicated the DPP was trying to avoid irritating both Beijing and Washington. Professor Chang Ling-chen at National Taiwan University said Tsai’s cross-strait policy was full of contradictions. “She recognised the importance of the ECFA to Taiwan, but rejected the ‘1992 consensus’, which is the foundation of the series of cross-strait agreements.”
A delegation led by Tsai is visiting Washington on September 12th, while at the same time, a ruling KMT delegation led by Legislative Yuan Deputy Speaker Tseng Yung-chuan is paying a visit in Washington as well. Taiwan media say Tsai has to try very hard to convince Washington with her yet-to-come “Taiwan Consensus”.
US arm sale to Taiwan
the US administration announced a new arms package worth $5.852 billion to Taiwan, including the so-called “upgrading” of F-16A/B fighter jets. On September 21st, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun summoned the US Ambassador to China Gary Locke and lodge strong protest to the US side, according to China Daily.
