China Digital Times

SECTION: Politics

• New Fears over Cyber-snooping in China

  

  New regulations require Internet cafes in Jiangxi Province to install Chinese-developed operating systems on their computers. From AP:

  The new rules went into effect on November 5 and are aimed at cracking down on pirated software, said Hu Shenghua, a spokesman for the culture bureau in the city of Nanchang, Jiangxi province. Internet cafe operators are required to replace unlicensed software with legitimate copies of either Microsoft Windows or China’s Red Flag Linux operating system, while paying a fee, he said.

  However, Radio Free Asia said cafes were being required to install Red Flag Linux even if they were using authorised copies of Windows. It quoted Xiao Qiang, director of the California-based China Internet Project, as saying the new rules would help the authorities to undertake heightened surveillance of the cafes.

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  • December 4, 2008 11:57 AM

• China 2008: China and the Developing World

  

  Over the next week, CDT will post a series of topic pages on relevant issues facing China. The first, below, is on China’s relations with the developing world:

  One of the most interesting developments in China’s foreign policy in the last 5-10 years has been China’s increasing involvement in the developing world. China’s involvement has taken a number of forms, including direct financial aid, strengthened trade ties, and technology/arms transfers. Additionally, China has regularly hosted and attended annual meetings from a number of regions.  One of China’s most attractive features for developing countries is that it is known for providing development aid and infrastructure assistance without conditions or requirements, in direct opposition to many Western countries and organizations.  Furthermore, China strictly adheres to a non-interference policy, respecting international sovereignty and avoiding interference in a country’s internal affairs: something the West is not necessarily committed to.  The articles linked to below primarily show China’s involvement in Africa and Latin America.  As the articles describe, China has provided a wide-range of assistance, from funding for hospitals to trade agreements.

  China’s Motivations: There are a number of reasons for China’s involvement in the developing world. One of the most important of those reasons is China’s access to natural resources, which are plentiful in many of the developing countries China supports.  China is anxious to secure alternative energy sources, as well as alternative markets for its products. Additionally, China reaches out to developing nations for security reasons: it both wants to solidify its periphery as well as isolate Taiwan on the international scene. Indeed, many of the countries that China has financially aided have withdrawn their official acknowledgment of Taiwan. Finally, China provides aid to developing countries in order to support a multipolar world and hedge against the United States. On a softer note, China sees itself as the “world’s largest developing country” and feels a kinship with other developing nations, though it is quickly (if it has not already) moving out of this category.

  Soft Power: Developed by Joseph Nye, soft power is the concept of expanding one’s influence through non-military means.  Scholars and journalists have recently linked China’s involvement in the developing world with the concept of soft power, commenting with some concern that China may be making a conscious effort to supplant U.S. power through its financial support of developing nations.  While Chinese influence is certainly increasing in regions such as Latin America and Africa, it is unclear whether China is making a concerted effort to supplant the United States through the use of soft power.

  China’s Relationship with Pariah States: Much of the criticism of China’s foreign policy has arisen from its support of pariah states.  China supports Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe, the military junta in Burma, and has provided the government of Sudan with weapons.  As mentioned above, many consider these actions as China’s way of hedging against U.S. power. Though China has remained recalcitrant in its support of some pariah nations, it’s desire to be a respected member of the international system has led China to take a leadership role against other pariah states such as North Korea.

  The World’s Response to China’s outreach: The West has become concerned with China’s involvement in the developing world for a number of reasons.  First, China’s practice of providing aid without obligations has made it difficult for the West to promote good governance and sustainable development with aid as a carrot.  Additionally, as noted above, China’s support for a number of pariah states makes it nearly impossible to isolate the states to create regime change.  Hopefully, China will increasingly prioritize its standing in the world and work to become a respectable member in the global community through more responsible lending practices.
  

  • Dec 02 2008: China to Extend Major Financial Support to Nepal
  • Dec 01 2008: China grants Sudan $3m for north-south unity
  • Nov 30 2008: China Urges Practical Steps To Help Developing Countries In Confronting Crisis
  • Nov 29 2008: China Helps Fight Cholera in Zimbabwe
  • Nov 29 2008: China Concerned over Situation in DR Congo
  • Nov 24 2008: China president in Greece for $1 billion port deal
  • Nov 18 2008: China, Costa Rica to Launch Trade Talks
  • Oct 01 2008: Salsa Fever Sweeps into China
  • Sep 16 2008: China Urges Iran’s Cooperation with Nuclear Agency

  
  

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  • December 3, 2008 11:28 PM

• Where Are Chinese (And Bangladeshi) Internet Police Being Trained?

  

  

  Where Are Chinese Internet Police Being Trained? This inetcop.com.cn website has the answer.
  The following is from the Xiamen Meiah Pico IT CO., Ltd. website, translated by CDT’s Lucy Lin:

  On July 30, 2004, the Ministry of Public Security formally passed and authorized the establishment of a “National Internet Police Training Program,” which would rely on the company’s technological skills, educational resources, and experimental environment to provide training and related services in the field of Internet supervision for the Department of Secure Internet Public Information to the Ministry of Public Security.

  Up to December 2005, the training bases not only completed more than a dozen national skill-based training assignments, they have also set up 70 extra beginning, intermediate, and advanced training classes relating to the monitoring of Internet security and investigation of computers for certification. This has provided skill-based training for the more than 3,000 policemen at the Ministry of Public Security. Furthermore, in November 2005, the Ministry of Public Security for the first time undertook a foreign aid project and effectively completed its assignment to provide training on the investigation of computers for certification to the Bangladesh police. This was its first step in internationalizing these training programs.

  Contact Phone Number: 0592-3929988
  Fax: 0592-2519335
  E-mail: training@inetcop.com.cn
  Address: Xiamen Meiah Pico IT CO., Ltd., Xiamen Software Park Phase II, 12 Guanri Rd. Xiamen City, Fujian Province, China

  全国网络警察培训基地

  2004年7月30日，公安部正式批文，授权筹建成立“全国网络警察培训基地”，依托公司的技术力量、教学资源和试验环境，为公安机关公共信息网络安全监察部门民警提供网络监察方面的培训和相关服务。
  至2005年12月，培训基地不仅完成了十几次的全国性技术培训任务，开办了70余期有关网络安全监控和计算机勘查取证的初、中、高级培训班，为全国3000人次的公安干警提供了相关的技术技能培训。并于2005年11月，首次承办公安部对外援助项目，完满完成为孟加拉警方提供计算机取证培训的任务，迈出了走向国际化的第一步。

  联系电话：0592-3929988
  传真： 0592-2519335
  邮件： training@inetcop.com.cn
  地址： 中国福建省厦门市软件园二期观日路12号美亚柏科大厦

  =====

  Also on the front page of the same website:

  In November 2008, [the company] once again hosted an international conference of the Ministry of Public Security, and successfully accomplished the large scale training program “China and ASEAN Internet Crimes Investigation Research and Training Class.” It is another solid step towards internationalization of the training base.

  2008年11月，再次承办公安部涉外会议，圆满完成了“中国与东盟网络犯罪侦查研修班”的大型培训任务，为培训基地走向国际化不断迈出坚实的步伐。
  =====
  The same site also posted the following, to prove that their work has been officially recognized:

  The “National Internet Police Training Base” has obtained permission for its establishment!

  On July 30, 2004, we submitted the report on “Instructions for Setting Up Training Bases for the Eleventh Office of the Ministry of Public Security” (United States and Asia Corp. Signature [2004] No. 1) This concludes the matter. The full text of the reply is as follows.

  

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  • December 3, 2008 11:02 PM

• Guantánamo and China: A Shared Legal Dead Zone

  

  In the International Herald Tribune, Richard Bernstein writes about executed accused spy Wo Weihan, Guantanamo Bay, and China’s human rights record:

  China’s human rights record remains abysmal, but one price paid by the United States as it tries to bring pressure on Beijing is that some of the very things that China is accused of doing - preventing transparency, using national security to justify closed-door proceedings, bypassing the normal procedures in certain cases - are what the Bush administration has been doing at its detention center for alleged enemy combatants in Guantánamo Bay, and that certainly would seem to rob Washington of some of its moral authority.

  “Guantánamo was all about trying to create a place that would be outside the jurisdiction of both American and international law, a dead legal zone,” said Andrew Nathan, a political scientist at Columbia specializing both in China and in human rights law. “It was to deny the detainees any recourse to due process.”

  What makes Guantánamo similar to China, Nathan said, is that when it comes to matters deemed by the regime in Beijing to be of great importance, the entire country is a sort of dead legal zone, inside a closed system not subject to independent outside scrutiny by independent civilian courts.

  Happily, there isn’t much else in which China and the United States are comparable in this regard.

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  • December 3, 2008 10:12 PM

• Melamine Scandal Continues

  

  Due to the tainted milk scandal, the Chinese dairy industry is suffering with exports falling an incredible 92% from October 2007 to October 2008.  Currently, over 850 children are in hospital, 154 of them still in serious condition.

  The Taipei Times charged that the Chinese government “often deliberately releases information piecemeal in part to keep from feeding public anger.”  The Chinese government has reported that milk contamination resulted in a total of six deaths, but some parents of deceased children claim that their cases were not counted:

  “When the county health bureau first came to us, they said my child died because of the milk powder,” said apple farmer Tian Xiaowei of Shaanxi Province, whose year-old boy died in August. “But later when the case was reported to the district health authority, they said there’s no proof that the death was linked with milk powder.”

  In Henan, Li Shenyi, the uncle of a 9-month-old girl who died of kidney failure in September, also said he had not been contacted by local health authorities on whether the child’s death has been classified as caused by tainted formula.

  Without the official verdict, families fear they will be refused compensation promised by the government through the Health Ministry, which has also said it would provide free medical treatment for children sickened by tainted milk… A Beijing lawyer who has provided legal assistance to families of children who became ill said there was still no word of compensation. He added there were likely even more deaths that had not been counted yet.

  “I assume that the government is worried about the situation of the dairies and is afraid the companies may fall if they have to pay for the compensation amid the current financial crisis,” Chang Boyang said. “I believe there may be more deaths because some of the parents might not even report the cases to the government.”

  In related news, Hong Kong authorities have announced that they have found melamine in eggs from Jilin province and are currently trying to find bakeries that may have purchased and used these tainted eggs.  Out of 307 egg samples tested recently in Hong Kong, four were discovered to contain more than the legal limit of melamine, that of 2.5 ppm.

  See also Hong Kong’s Center for Food Safety FAQ page on melamine.

  See also past posts for more information on the milk scandal.

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  • December 3, 2008 12:21 PM

• Zhiwu Chen: Building a Nation Demands More than Steel and Concrete

  

  In the Globe and Mail, Zhiwu Chen, professor of finance at the Yale School of Management, asks why the Chinese government is investing the stimulus package in major infrastructure projects and not on social programs:

  In China, the government is not elected, so winning more votes is not part of the calculation, and returning money to the people is never the choice. The government doesn’t just spend it, but always seems to favour tangible things such as skyscrapers, fancy government buildings, highways, and big industrial projects.

  This partly explains not only why democracies such as India and Brazil lag behind China in infrastructure, but also why China is focusing its new stimulus package on transport systems (railroad projects alone will receive more than half of the $586-billion stimulus). In a non-democracy, officials are held accountable to their superiors, not to voters. And for one’s superiors, tangible projects are the easiest to recognize.

  Indeed, while China’s new stimulus plan overwhelmingly emphasizes infrastructure, it gives short shrift to social programs, such as health care and education, even though they can reduce household saving pressure and increase private consumption.

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  • December 2, 2008 10:59 PM

• Shenzhen Activists Distribute “Democracy Survey” Pamphlets On The Streets (With Photos)

  

  A group of democracy advocates in Shenzhen took to the streets on November 29 to hand out pamphlets titled, “Recommendations for National Reform.”

  Blogger Mo Zhixu (莫之许) posted an account of the group’s action (by Li Tie) on his Sohu blog. It was the second time the group had conducted their “survey” of the city’s residents’ feelings about democracy.

  On the morning the action was scheduled to take place, Li says a public security officer called him and asked if there was something happening that day. He said that there was, “just like last time.” Then the officer asked where it would take place. Li said, “The same place we gathered last time.” There was nothing to hide, Li said.

  The group, which included Chen Shuwei, Yang Yong, Li Jian, Li Tie and Zhang Xingqiu (pictured below from left to right), printed 5,000 copies of the pamphlet.

  

  “A majority of the passersby were interested in the pamphlet,” Li wrote in his account. “There were a few who walked past because they thought we were advertising some product, but once we explained that the booklet was about China’s development towards democracy, they turned around and grabbed a copy.”

  
  A group photo in front of a billboard featuring Chinese reformer Deng Xiaoping.

  

  The survey reads: What kind of system do you think China should have?

  (a) One-Party System
  (b) Multi-Party System
  (c) Give People the Right to Choose, Experiment
  (d) Other

  Here is the Chinese version of the “Recommendations for National Reform.”

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  • December 2, 2008 10:01 PM

• China to Extend Major Financial Support to Nepal

  

  From the Hindustan Times:

  Chinese ambassador to Nepal Qiu Guohong recently announced an increase in financial support to Nepal, though the details are still unknown. The announcement precedes a visit to Nepal by Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, who has not yet visited Nepal and will lead a 15-member delegation for a three-day trip. In September, the Chinese announced military support for Nepal. Additionally:

  The Chinese government has already connected Nepal with its optical fibre network and has announced to extend its railway network from Lhasa to Kathmandu immediately.

  For more information on Nepal, please see the following China Digital Times articles:

  Nepal to Deport Illegal Tibetans

  China’s Nepal card

  Elevate China-Nepal Ties to New High: Prachanda

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  • December 2, 2008 12:30 PM

• Yongsheng Zhang: China’s Economic Reforms Pushed By Civil Society

  

  From The East Asia Forum:

  The recent strikes of taxi drivers in some places in China is a good example.China has always put economic development and social stability as the top priority. But in the past, stability was achieved even through times of high pressure. This kind of stability was not real stability and not sustainable. The real social stability needs to be achieved through rule of law and civil society (or, as Hu Jintao put it at the 17th congress, “socialist democracy”). When the first strike happened in Chongqing, the party chief of Chongqing, Bo Xilai, solved it in a different way to what is sometimes expected in China — to listen to the appeal of the taxi driver and reform the regulation of the government, rather than put pressure to stop the strike in the first place. These kind of examples can be seen as definite progress toward civil society in China.

  Chongqing’s solution encouraged taxi drivers elsewhere to take action. In Hainan, Guangdong, Jiangxi and other places, taxi drivers followed Chongqing and organised strikes. In the old thinking, the strike means instability. But, actually, strikes are a sign that the Chinese society is becoming more and more open, transparent and democratic, since now the people can protest publicly, and the government has to solve problems through reforming and disciplining their own behaviour. Some western media may report the strike from a different angle and deem the strikes as the evidence of instability in China, or even the evidence of the crisis of Gongchandang’s rule. This kind of conclusion is incorrect and misleading.

  Yongsheng Zhang is Senior Research Fellow at the Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC), PRC and Professor of Renmin University of China.

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  • December 2, 2008 10:28 AM

• China Beat: Zhao Ziyang’s Legacy and 6/4 Memories

  

  China Beat has compiled several links to reports about the recent crackdown on Yanhuang Chunqiu for its coverage of Zhao Ziyang:

  As we prepare to mark the 30th anniversary of one turning point in the history of Chinese dissent (the appearance of Wei Jingsheng’s “Fifth Modernization” poster on December 5, 1978, the subject of a post we’ll run later this week), a debate on another major turning point (the 1989 protests and June 4th Massacre) may be re-emerging within China ahead of its 30th anniversary.

  One of the earliest reports (in English) that the Ministry of Culture had sought the resignation of the editor of the well-regarded magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu over its recent cover story praising purged leader Zhao Ziyang was on Time’s China Blog. There, Simon Elegant mentioned the incident, which has slowly gained momentum over the past few weeks.

  Read also “New push for Tiananmen reforms” from The Age.

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  • December 1, 2008 10:08 PM

• Do Chinese Web Users Have More Fun?

  

  From the Wall Street Journal blog:

  Yes, according to research firm TNS, which recently surveyed roughly 2500 Web users in each of 16 countries around the world, including the U.S., U.K., China, Japan, Korea and Australia.

  According to survey results, China’s Internet users are more likely than their counterparts anywhere else to describe as “fun” a whole array of Web-based activities, including blogs, message boards, forums, online video and wikis.

  Chinese Web users are also very active in their online participation, especially when compared to Westerners.

  “Web 2.0 is far more advanced in Asia, and in China, than in the U.S. and Europe,” says Bernice Klaassen, head of interactive research at TNS Singapore. In Western countries, about 1% of users create online content, about 10% participate through methods like comments or discussions and the rest are lurkers,” he says. Meanwhile, in China, Mr. Klaassen says the proportion of active participants is closer to 50%, with a significantly greater share of Web users blogging regularly, participating in online forums, and sharing video and music.

  On a related topic, please also read blogger elliottng’s CNBloggerCon 2008 In Review: Transforming China’s Civil Society From The Inside Out:

  Social media, and the blogosphere, are playing a historic role in the transformation of China. Because mainstream media in China continues to be regulated and controlled, social media will step in to play the role that free press has played in the positive (and mostly stable) development of Western liberal democracies. China’s ruling party did not choose social media, but China’s people did. And now, social media promises to play a big part in the progressive development of the country.

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  • December 1, 2008 4:07 PM

• Socialist Rule of Law

  

  Without a developed rule of law, China’s economic plans alone will be unable to sustain the stability of the state. This is one of the main arguments in an opinion piece from Leslie Hook of the Wall Street Journal:

  The current legal system grew out of the reforms of 1978, and like the economy, it has improved greatly in the past three decades, especially in the development of a commercial code. But in a Communist system there is no law apart from the state, and while China’s leaders often pay lip service to the rule of law, their actions speak louder than words.

  President Hu Jintao’s catchword is “harmony,” and it’s only now, six years into his rule, becoming apparent what that means for the rule of law. Take the words of Wang Shengjun, a career bureaucrat with no formal law degree, who was named head of the Supreme Court in March. Mr. Wang has promulgated Mr. Hu’s theory of the “Three Supremes” to guide the work of the legal system. This refers to the Communist Party, the people’s interest, and the constitution and laws — in that order. During a recent visit to a court in Beijing’s Fengtai district, he said the “demand of the people” should “become the basic principle of people’s court routine.”

  Nowhere is this attitude clearer than in the local bar associations. In free countries, lawyers organize via independent bar associations that govern ethics and serve as watchdogs on government abuses of the system. Not so in China. All practicing lawyers must register with and pay dues to their local lawyers’ association, which reports to the Ministry of Justice, which tacitly approves its leaders. These associations aren’t there to help lawyers or represent them to the Ministry; rather, their purpose is to control the lawyers — sometimes even telling them whom they can, and can’t, represent, according to Chinese legal scholars. Many lawyers resent paying for this “service.”

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  • December 1, 2008 3:33 PM

• Elliot Sperling: Don’t Know Much About Tibetan History

  

  Elliot Sperling writes the following OP-ED in the New York Times:

  For many Tibetans, the case for the historical independence of their land is unequivocal. They assert that Tibet has always been and by rights now ought to be an independent country. China’s assertions are equally unequivocal: Tibet became a part of China during Mongol rule and its status as a part of China has never changed. Both of these assertions are at odds with Tibet’s history.

  The Tibetan view holds that Tibet was never subject to foreign rule after it emerged in the mid-seventh century as a dynamic power holding sway over an Inner Asian empire. These Tibetans say the appearance of subjugation to the Mongol rulers of the Yuan Dynasty in the 13th and 14th centuries, and to the Manchu rulers of China’s Qing Dynasty from the 18th century until the 20th century, is due to a modern, largely Western misunderstanding of the personal relations among the Yuan and Qing emperors and the pre-eminent lamas of Tibet. In this view, the lamas simply served as spiritual mentors to the emperors, with no compromise of Tibet’s independent status.

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  • December 1, 2008 3:13 PM

• Chinese Netizens ‘Concerned’ Over Local Officials’ Integrity: Survey

  

  A survey in the People’s Daily suggests that a majority of Chinese netizens doubt the integrity of local government officials. From Xinhua:

  A majority of Chinese respondents were not satisfied with the local official’s performance in honesty and discipline, showed an on-line survey hosted by a leading Chinese Communist Party newspaper.

  About 76 percent of the 18,866 netizens surveyed expressed concern over the integrity of county-level Party chiefs, according to the result of the survey carried in Monday’s the People’s Daily.

  On the question about the standard for a competent county Party chief, 85.5 percent of the 26,425 respondents said that a local Party leader should always be self-disciplined, clean and free from corruption, according to the result of the survey.

  The survey, jointly carried out by the leading Party newspaper and its website people.com.cn, came shortly after a training program of county-level Party officials from Nov. 10 to 26 held at the Party School of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee.

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  • December 1, 2008 2:52 PM

• China Grants Sudan $3m for North-South Unity

  

  From the Sudan Tribune:

  On Sunday, the Chinese government granted the government of Sudan $3 million for the purposes of strengthening unity between the north and south of Sudan. The grant comes on the heels of a recent agreement between the two countries to enhance economic cooperation and trade and to open Chinese banks in Sudan.  In February 2009, China and Sudan will mark 50 years of relations. As the article notes, the level of trade relations between China and Sudan is significant:

  China is Sudan’s leading commercial partner while Sudan is China’s third largest trade partner in Africa.The volume of trade exchange between the two countries in 2007 reached 5.6 billion US dollars, while the trade volume in the first nine months of 2008 was at 6.5 billion dollars comprising different sectors, particularly oil, machinery, equipments and goods.

  China’s relationship with Sudan has been fraught with controversy, particularly regarding the Darfur crisis. To read more, please see these articles on China Digital Times.

  Will Killing of Oil Workers Harden China’s Darfur Policy?
  China Hostages ‘Killed in Sudan’ (Updated)
  China Says Working With West To Avoid Darfur Strife

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  • December 1, 2008 1:15 PM