Liu He, who leads the party’s Central Leading Group on Financial and Economic Affairs, has been given the task of preparing a seven-point blueprint for the Third Plenum of the 18th Communist Party Congress, which is due in about October, according to a source with close ties to several members of the Politburo Standing Committee.

If executed as intended, the new reform program would go some way to answering doubts about whether China can continue underwriting the Australian economy, including huge gas and other resource investment plans over the next decade.

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Some hedge fund managers say China’s has reached a “zugzwang” moment, referring to the predicament when a chess player must make a move but prefers to pass.

“In China policy is made when the pain of inaction is higher than the pain of action, and we’ve reached that point,” said David Hoffman, managing director of the Conference Board China Centre for Economics and Business.

[Source]

China reported disappointing first quarter GDP growth of 7.7 percent last month, as slumping factory output and soft consumption pulled the economy back from the 7.9% growth figure posted in the final quarter of 2012. But while TIME’s Michael Schuman wrote that “China’s growth model is broken and can’t be so easily fixed,” emerging markets investor Mark Mobius told the Vancouver Sun last week that concerns over China’s economic slowdown are overblown:

Q. The most recent news we’ve seen from China has focused on lower inflation and a slowdown in their economy. How much does what goes on in China weigh on the overall emerging markets sector?

A. It has an impact in Asia, of course, because you’ve seen more and more trade and investment between China and the rest of Asia. (But) China is just one part of the whole equation. Because you’ve got a huge Indian economy, you’ve got a very big Brazilian economy, a big Russian economy, the so-called BRICS. Then you’ve got Indonesia, you’ve got Thailand, many other countries that are doing quite well, and are having an impact on what’s happening around the world.

Q. What are we missing (in Canada) by focusing so much on China and the appearance of their slowdown?

A. First of all, the slowdown is kind of a misnomer because if somebody goes from 12-per-cent growth to eight-per-cent growth and they are the second largest economy in the world, that’s not a big, big problem, because they’re growing at a rapid rate. At eight per cent, in a huge economy, the actual dollar amount of increment is greater than it was five years ago.

[Source]

BBC’s chief business correspondent Linda Yueh wrote this weekend that while the services sector has grown more rapidly than other parts of the Chinese economy this year, concerns still linger:

One worry expressed to me about rebalancing towards services and focusing on consumers came from one of China’s best-known economists and the former World Bank chief economist, Justin Yifu Lin of Peking University.

He stresses that consumption should not be pursued for its own sake. The bursting of the credit bubble in America makes that point vividly. Instead, he says, consumption supported by income growth, not borrowing, is key.

He also points out that it’s not exports which are the important factor for future growth, but more government spending and investment for productive uses.

It’s all about finding the right balance. China’s economy is now fairly equally driven by services and industry, while maintaining its position as the world’s largest exporter of goods. Manufacturing is growing and not declining. China is not giving up on exports, it’s simply becoming more balanced.

[Source]

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, economic growth, economic reform, emerging markets, GDP, Politburo Standing Committee
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In the wake of the recent Bo Xilai scandal and the resulting crisis of CPC rule, many had anticipated that party leaders would adopt certain election mechanisms—what the Chinese authorities call “intra-party democracy”—to restore the party’s much-damaged legitimacy and to generate a sense that the new top leaders do indeed have an election-based new mandate to rule. For example, some analysts had anticipated that the CPC Central Committee might use competitive (though limited) multiple-candidate elections to select members of its leadership bodies, such as the twenty-five-member politburo or even the PSC. Such high-level elections, however, did not take place. The selection of elites at this congress continued to be done the old fashioned way—through the “black box” of manipulation, deal-cutting, and trade-offs that occur behind the scenes among a handful of politicians (e.g., outgoing PSC members and retired heavyweight figures—most noticeably the 86-year old Jiang).

What is even more troubling is the fact that four out of the seven PSC members are princelings—leaders who come from families of either veteran revolutionaries or high-ranking officials. It has been widely noted that large numbers of prominent party leaders and families have used their political power to convert state assets into their own private wealth. The unprecedentedly strong presence of princelings in the new PSC is likely to reinforce public resentment of how power and wealth continue to converge in China.

Chinese politics thus seem to be entering a new era characterized by the concentration of princeling power at the top. This gives rise to important questions regarding the nature and implications of the new leadership. What caused the dramatic defeat of the Hu camp in this political succession? Does the six-to-one split of the PSC mean a shift from factional power-sharing to a new “winner takes all” mode of Chinese elite politics? Will the factional imbalance at the top seriously undermine leadership unity and elite cohesion, thus potentially threatening the sociopolitical stability of the country at large? What are the main characteristics of this new princeling elite? What should we expect in terms of economic policies, political reforms, and foreign relations under the Xi Jinping administration? And can the identities of newly promoted leaders help us understand where China is headed?

The issue also includes a Pico Iyer essay about the Dalai Lama, an article about the South China Sea disputes, and interview with Orville Schell, and a review of two recent e-books about the fall of Bo Xilai, written by CDT’s Translation Coordinator, Anne Henochowicz.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, CCP 5th generation, Dalai Lama, Orville Schell, princelings, South China Sea, Xi Jinping
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The 18th Party Congress pointed out that, revolving around this main theme, to grasp new victories for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics under new historical conditions, we must closely grasp the basic requirements in eight areas, and let them become the common convictions of the entire Party and the people of all ethnicities in the entire country. These eight basic requirements are: we must persist in the dominant role of the people; we must persist in liberating and developing social productive forces; we must persist in moving reform and opening-up forward; we must persist in safeguarding social fairness and justice; we must persist in marching the path of being well-to-do together; we must persist in stimulating social harmony; we must persist in peaceful development; and we must persist in the leadership of the Party. The basic requirements and common convictions of these “Eight Musts” are an enrichment and development of the inner meaning of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and shall become our programme of action.

Socialism with Chinese Characteristics is the undertaking of the millions of people themselves, therefore, the mastering spirit of the people must be given full rein, to better guarantee that the people are the master of their own affairs.

Persisting in the dominant role of the people, is that we must believe in the people, rely on the people and consider the people as real heroes. This is the tradition and superiority of the Chinese Communist Party.

In another post, Creemers provides analysis of this article and the significance of the “Eight Musts.” Notably, Creemers believes these principles partially aim to acknowledge the popularity of certain policies put forth by disgraced Chongqing Party chief Bo Xilai:

Basically, these documents confirm the Party’s intention to maintain the current political structure, strengthen and improve it. This should come as no surprise, as this basically has been the line that has been taken since 1979. In other words, anyone expecting breakthroughs in areas that the Party has identified as crucial for its hold on power, including media (as demonstrated by the Southern Weekend kerfuffle), the Internet, relations with the Army, and the Leninist political structure. What is striking, however, is that the legitimation of all Eight Musts is based on quotes from Mao and Deng. Jiang Zemin is completely absent from the articles, while Hu Jintao is only mentioned once in the People’s Daily. More generally, these articles clearly aim to reconnect pre-’79 China with the reform period. In my view, this is an effort to take over some of the success garnered by the nostalgic Bo line, and to hark back to a more egalitarian age, when the Party was less beset by the well-known illnesses of corruption, privilege and abuse that plague it today. The People’s Daily also clearly mentions that a greater role must be given to the “mastering spirit” of the people, to ensure that they are more in charge of their own affairs. This is an affirmation of democracy, but in the Chinese sense: democratic centralism in politics, but possibly a new emphasis on private entrepreneurialism and a shift away from the attention lavished on large SOEs during the previous decade.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, CCP, ccp leadership, eight musts, political reform, socialism, wealth gap, Xi Jinping
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Wang has become the poster boy for the reformist camp in the party and a darling of the media. His image as a reformer has endured even as the reputations of both Hu and Premier Wen Jiabao have taken a beating: over the past decade, Hu has shown himself willing to use repression to “maintain social stability”, no matter the damage to society and the political and legal systems, while Wen’s image as a clean and upright politician has suffered after the devastating media reports on his family’s wealth.

There’s no doubt Wang stands out among senior party officials for his quick mind and lack of affectation. He was expressive, and knew how to dress up bureaucratic rhetoric to make it more palatable. He should also be credited for creating some room for debate on reform with his call to “liberate people’s thinking” and his push to strengthen civil society.

But as a member of the Guangdong press, I saw how Wang set back the media during his five-year rule. Freedom of speech is the foundation of all political and democratic reform. From this perspective, we can hardly give his performance a good appraisal.

One of the strikes against Wang, Chang argues, is the appointment during his tenure of Tuo Zhen as provincial propaganda chief. Tuo’s alleged conservatism and inflexibility are said to have taken hold gradually during his thirty-year climb from a start as a “crusading” reporter documenting the plight of the poor. From Teddy Ng at South China Morning Post:

Tuo, 52, started his career as a reporter at the Economic Daily in 1982, and went on to become the newspaper’s chief editor in 2005. In 2011, he was made a vice-president of Xinhua, and he moved to Guangdong in May last year.

He gained early fame for an award-winning story he wrote in 1983 about an engineer who lived in a dilapidated home and worked for a boss who owned four apartments.

Tuo was named one of China’s 10 most outstanding young people in 1993 and was made a senior reporter for the Economic Daily in 1994.

During his time at the newspaper, Tuo was involved in a series of reports on reforms launched in Tongling , Anhui province, when former Guangdong Communist Party chief Wang Yang was the city’s mayor.

He once said the fairness and objectivity of journalists should not be challenged, and the trust bestowed upon journalists by ordinary citizens should be a strong motivation.

By the time he reached Guangdong last year, the transformation appeared complete. At South China Morning Post’s Locustland blog, John Kennedy translated a Weibo post from a purported employee of the Nanfang Media Group, owner of the wayward Nanfang Zhoumo (Southern Weekly, or Southern Weekend) newspaper:

Rumour has it when Tuo arrived in Guangdong, he called up the heads of each newspaper for one-on-one chats, saying the party has entrusted them to hold the line on permitted speech together, that any lost ground will be lost for good.

Then he came out with a series of mortal blows: forbidding Guangdong media from reporting on corruption in other provinces, banning any commentary on negative news in far-off locations, constantly requiring that only the People’s Daily or Xinhua version of news be allowed to run. Southern Weekly in particular has been ordered to get prior approval for every story from the provincial propaganda department, which won’t let each issue go to print until it’s seen all major reports.

This week, Tuo apparently vindicated Chang’s comments by rewriting Southern Weekly’s traditional New Year greeting, without so much as informing the newspaper’s editors. The original article, Dai Zhiyong’s strident call for fulfilling “the dream of constitutionalism in China”, was replaced with anodyne sentiments about how close to fulfilling its dreams China had come. From David Bandurski at China Media Project:

Only if constitutionalism is realized and power effectively checked can citizens voice their criticisms of power loudly and confidently, and only then can every person believe in their hearts that they are free to live their own lives. Only then can we build a truly free and strong nation. . .

According to chatter on Weibo, there were three versions of the letter. The first was the original by Dai Zhiyong, from which the above translation comes. The second was the draft from editors at the newspaper. The third, the version that eventually went to print, contains further changes now being attributed to Tuo Zhen (庹震), Guangdong’s provincial propaganda chief, as well as an introductory message from Tuo Zhen.

[…] The full story here is not yet clear. But it looks as though two egregious violations of propaganda protocol are involved here. First, Tuo Zhen seems to have single-handedly made changes to the second version of the “New Year’s Greeting” after editors responded to his objections to the original. The result is Tuo Zhen’s version three. Second, Tuo Zhen seems to have added his own separate text unilaterally to the paper by penning the “Pursuing Our Dreams” message.

While the original editorial is strongly worded, voicing the hope that China’s Constitution will “cut its teeth” and become the real foundation of freedom in the country, the final version is entirely toothless.

A reference to legendary ruler Yu the Great added insult to injury, suggesting that he tamed disastrous floods not 4,000 but 2,000 years ago. A group of former Southern Weekly journalists expressed their anger in an open letter, accusing Tuo of undermining the central government’s credibility and urging his forced resignation. From a translation at China Media Project:

It is our view that Minister Tuo Zhen’s actions overstep the bounds (越界之举), that they are dictatorial (擅权之举), that they are ignorant and excessive.

It is our view that in this era in which hope is necessary, he is obliterating hope; in this era in which equality is yearned for, his actions are haughty and condescending; in this era of growing open-mindedness, his actions are foolish and careless; in this era that cares for learning and refinement, his actions are crude and thoughtless.

In recent days, the general attitude at home and overseas following the 18th National Congress has been one of optimism over China’s prospects. This optimism is grounded in the outlook and policy direction of the new leadership. That policy direction includes: Unswervingly pushing ahead with reform and opening, persevering in exercising power under the sunlight [i.e., in an open manner], firmly insisting on the basic principles of the Constitution, and resolutely opposing corruption and bureaucratism (官僚主义).

The actions of Minister Tuo Zhen, in Guangzhou and on the very front lines of reform and opening, are entirely contrary to this policy orientation.

By Saturday, South China Morning Post’s Teddy Ng reported, similar letters and statements had come from Southern Weekly’s editorial staff, more than fifty former interns, and Nanjing University’s journalism school. From Keith Richburg at The Washington Post:

Media experts said the demands for Tuo’s ouster set up a challenge that will be difficult for the government to ignore. “There is little room for the two sides to negotiate,” Zhang Lifan, a political commentator, wrote on his weibo account Friday. “The incident will testify to the direction of political reform.”

[…] Asked about the Southern Weekly controversy Friday, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said she did not know the specifics of the situation, which she noted did not pertain to foreign affairs. But she added: “In China, no so-called news censorship system exists. The Chinese government protects journalistic freedom according to the law.”

Discussion of the case on Weibo has been suppressed by blocks on relevant search terms already documented at CDT. In addition, some current Southern Weekly staff have seen their Weibo accounts suspended, according to the former employees’ letter. Both central and local authorities have sought to rein in media coverage of the issue: a Central Propaganda Department directive obtained by CDT ordered:

Urgent notice: Upon receipt of this message, controlling departments in all locales must immediately inform all reporters and editors that they may not discuss the Southern Weekend New Year’s greeting on any public platforms. (January 3, 2013)

The Chinese-language Global Times did comment on Thursday, urging cool heads. From a translation at Fei Chang Dao:

The truth be told, many media outlets have had the experience of taking certain opinions from the government on important reports. Having the government provide certain specific instructions on important reports is one device that is woven into the fabric of China’s news management. Overall, China’s reporting is increasingly open, and the general trend is a gradual reduction in the specific instructions from the government, but at the same time, there has been no change in the larger structure of media management.

The Chinese-language editorial was swiftly deleted, but a similar one remains on the English edition’s site:

The reality is that old media regulatory policies cannot go on as they are now. The society is progressing, and the management should evolve. Traditional media is integrating intimately with new media in China, resulting in frequent migration of professionals and different ways for them to pursue their personal interests. All these means the traditional regulation mechanisms no longer fit the new environment

But no matter how the Chinese media is regulated, they will never become the same as their Western counterparts. This should be the basic judgment of Chinese media professionals. China’s political system differs from the West’s, and the media cannot separate itself from a country’s political reality. The only way that fits the development of Chinese media is one that can suit the country’s development path.

While the controversy continued to rage, The Economist’s James Miles commented on its Analects blog on the constitutionalist current to which the original New Year greeting was intended to contribute.

The appeals for the party to respect the constitution’s provisions are part of what appears to be a new tactic by Chinese liberals to push for faster political change. On November 16th, a day after the party’s new leadership was installed, Yanhuang Chunqiu and academics from Peking University jointly organised a meeting in Beijing of around 100 intellectuals as well as a sprinkling of retired officials to discuss the constitution and the importance of upholding it […]. At the meeting a draft was circulated of what was called a “Proposal for a Consensus on Reform”. The thrust of its message was that if only the constitution were to be respected, China would become far more democratic. The document was made public on December 25th, with the names of 72 academics and lawyers attached.

The liberals’ decision to appeal to the constitution is likely to gather wide support among intellectuals, many of whom fear that any more overt challenge to the party could provoke a backlash. A petition for radical political reform issued four years ago resulted in police harassment of many of the thousands of people who signed it, as well as the sentencing of its chief author, Liu Xiaobo, to 11 years in prison. This time the authorities will find it harder to crack down. Thanks to the rapid growth of social media, especially microblogs, in the last couple of years, the liberals’ message is likely to spread.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Chang Ping, constitution, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Global Times, Guangdong, Guangdong Model, Liu Xiaobo, media censorship, media conditions, Peking University, political reform, Southern Media Group, Southern Weekly, southern weekly protest 2013, Tuo Zhen, Wang Yang, Xinhua, Yanhuang Chunqiu, Zhang Lifan
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In China, Andersen’s story (long familiar to Chinese) is now being re-enacted inside out. The emperors, the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, are party to the swindle. And the audacious act of deception is to convince the townsfolk that despite all outward appearances, Party leaders are not mantled with wealth and privilege — they are, in fact, naked.

Since he became General Secretary in November, Xi Jinping has made an extreme public relations makeover the centerpiece of his game plan. He wants to convince Chinese that the CCP’s fifth generation of leaders is down-to-earth, spurns ostentation, that it is engaged with the pocketbook concerns of the general population — but most of all that it is clean.

Corruption is a major, life-and-death issue for China’s ruling Party, and this is not the time for the Party be seen, like the emperor in Anderson’s story, wearing “the finest silk and the purest gold thread.”

Of course, the term “naked officials” has another meaning which brings to mind exactly the wealth and privilege that the leaders are trying to publicly disown.

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Post tags: 18th party congress, high-level corruption, naked officials, propaganda, Xi Jinping
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This October, China’s Eighteenth National Congress ushered in a new generation of leaders that will set the agenda for the second-largest economy in the world, provoking myriad questions about what we’ll see out of the country in the coming year. CFR’s Adam Segal predicts continued international concern for China’s cyber policy, while CFR’s Elizabeth C. Economy weighs its challenges of keeping “foreign policy front and center” against a heavy list of domestic concerns. Claremont McKenna’s Minxin Pei adds that China will be forced to respond to calls for greater political openness, facing a delicate balancing act. CFR’s Yanzhong Huang points out that despite China’s highly publicized health-care achievements, reform hasn’t fundamentally solved the problem of access and affordability.

Since Xi Jinping took the reins as CCP general secretary, domestic policy has been front and center: we have seen a symbolic trip to the south emphasize the leader’s commitment to economic reform, and have heard the powerful princeling identify the eradication of party corruption as a major policy goal. Also in question are the prospects for political reform – potentially divisive as the influence of previous party leadership lingers. A reform-minded new leader and an anti-corruption campaign both made Sinocism curator Bill Bishop’s list of “8 Trends to Keep an Eye On” in 2013, published at the NY Times’ Dealbook blog:

NEW LEADER Xi Jinping has moved quickly in his first three weeks to project an image of change. The government faces a growing expectations gap with its citizens and needs to rebuild public confidence. Mr. Xi is talking a lot about the Chinese dream and the “great renewal of the Chinese nation” — nationalist concepts with significant appeal. Mr. Xi’s choice of Shenzhen for his first domestic inspection trip is a symbolic tribute to Deng Xiaoping’s 1992 southern tour that restarted reforms after 1989. Mr. Xi’s visit is most likely a signal that he is serious about pushing forward with changes. Expect renewed energy around overhauls, primarily economic and administrative but possibly some political ones.

CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION The new leadership has begun a public crackdown on corruption. One relatively senior official and several minor officials have already fallen. Internet exposés brought down the minor officials, but there are reports that the Communist Party’s central disciplinary inspection commission has started new investigations into money laundering through Macau. Expect this antigraft campaign to ensnare more senior officials and to be the most effective in recent memory, yet ultimately stop short of addressing the systemic issues that have allowed corruption to flourish.

There are those, including CFR’s Elizabeth C. Economy and Bill Bishop above, who stress the importance of China’s foreign policy in the year to come. CNBC talked to Daniel Franklin, editor of The Economist’s “The World in 2013“:

The relationship between China’s new leader Xi Jinping and President Barack Obama “is absolutely the crucial one now for global politics,” Franklin tells The Daily Ticker.

Franklin says both men need to keep U.S.-China trade flowing. China is the second largest trading partner of the U.S. Last year $503 billion worth of goods were exchanged between the two countries. 80% of those items were U.S. imports from China.

Franklin says both countries also need to work on resolving disputes between China and other countries over ownership of islands in the South China Sea. Many of those countries, including Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines, are allies of the U.S.

“This is something that has to be handled, adjusted to, and it will be awkward, no doubt about it,” says Franklin.

China’s English-language press also offers us a forecast into the Year of the Water Snake. Xinhua describes rural development efforts to be expected in 2013, and the Global Times cites World Bank data predicting that GDP growth, which fell in 2012, will rebound:

The World Bank raised its 2013 economic growth forecast for China Wednesday, citing the government’s fiscal stimulus plans and faster approval of large investment projects.

China’s growth is projected to recover in 2013 to 8.4 percent due to the combination of monetary easing, local government fiscal stimulus, accelerated approval of investment projects and an upswing in the business cycle, the World Bank said in its East Asia and Pacific Economic Update published Wednesday.

The bank also forecast that growth will reach 7.9 percent for 2012, significantly down from 9.3 percent in 2011.

For more on the economic front, Bloomberg reports that China plans to increase its budget deficit by 50 percent in 2013, which could help to boost urbanization and consumer demand.

Next year may also bring further changes to China’s role in the global economy. While foreign firms invested 3.6 percent less in China compared to last year, Chinese firms invested 25 percent more abroad. Chinese FDI has long landed primarily in the developing world, but firms are also beginning to invest seriously in developed countries. Forbes predicts that this trend will continue, and identifies 13 Chinese companies that will “go global” in 2013:

Chinese foreign direct investment has long been characterized as focusing on securing raw materials in emerging markets like Africa and Latin America. But as the list of the top 13 Chinese companies going global below demonstrates, this is no longer the case. Chinese investment continues in strategic natural resources like oil and gas; however, companies in industries ranging from consumer electronics, entertainment, athletic apparel and even luxury boating are all pushing beyond the borders of the Middle Kingdom. Through expansion overseas, they aim to gain access to new distribution channels, international managers, brand recognition and technological expertise in global markets.

While some of the names appearing on the top 13 for 2013 are well on their way to becoming househould names, a few of the others may come as a surprise…

© josh rudolph for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, 2013, economic growth, economic reform, Internet regulation, leadership transition, political reform, predictions, technology, Xi Jinping, year end lists 2012
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View China News Map 2012 in a larger map

Thanks to Anne Henochowicz for her help putting this map together.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, 2012, Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, year end lists 2012
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The screenshots below show that, two weeks after the announcement of the new Politburo, Sina Weibo administrators had yet to settle on a consistent approach to censoring information about the Communist Party’s new leaders. At first glance, it initially appeared that Sina administrators had decided to not censor searches at all. For example, in the left-hand screenshots below, searches for “Xi Jinping” and “Li Keqiang” apparently returned thousands of results and there is no censorship notice anywhere on the page. A closer look reveals, however, that all of the “Hot Posts” were several days old, and the posts following the “Hot Posts” were actually delayed by almost exactly 48 hours.

[...] One month after the announcement of the new members of the Politburo Standing Committee, Sina Weibo appears to have settled on a “new normal” – it will impose a one week delay for search results for all PBSC member’s names in Chinese, except for “Hot Posts”. The screenshots below show that the most recent results for searches for “Xi Jinping” on December 13 and 14 are from December 6 and 7, respectively.

[...] The new rule is not only being applied to leaders and their families. These screenshots show that, whereas a search for “Xu Zhiyong” on November 27 returned results from as recently as November 25, the same search on December 18 did not return any results from the preceding seven days (with the exception of “hot posts”).

See more on internet censorship via CDT.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, censorship, Internet censorship, Sensitive Words Series, sina weibo, weibo
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The introduction of a sunshine law enjoys wide public approval, and would be a major step forward in the fight against corruption. The government must put it on the legislative agenda of the next National People’s Congress.

Corruption is an outcome of the unholy mix of power and money. The proper exercise of power is the key to curbing corruption. In a society governed by the rule of law, a gain in political power does not – and should not – come with a gain in wealth. But that is not how it is in China; power and money have become inextricably linked in its bureaucratic culture.

The challenge is daunting. But China can start with the basics. First, it must eradicate the conditions that breed corruption. This means improving its market and legal systems through comprehensive reform, to facilitate the transformation into a modern nation. This means abiding by the rule of law, and instituting a system that effectively targets corruption. This includes the features of a sunshine law, robust public and media scrutiny and an independent judiciary.

[…] China today is grappling with complex issues, but the problem at heart is quite simple. The fight against corruption depends on the rule of law. Without it, it’s all empty talk.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, 5th generation, corruption, National People's Congress, reform, rule of law, Xi Jinping
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He Guoqiang performing “Want! Want!! Want!!!” in 2002.

Guangdong artist He Guoqiang posted this blog entry on November 1, 2009, recalling his provocative performance art piece in honor of the opening of the 16th Party Congress in 2002. Photos from his performance reemerged online last month, as netizens drew parallels between the changing of the guard ten years ago and today.

He was detained for 15 days in 2002 after streaking through a public square in Guangzhou and waving a flag that called for elections. This has not deterred the Chengdu native, who continues to post images of his politically-charged paintings online [zh].

He was questioned by police on the evening of June 3 this year about paintings he had planned to unveil the next day, which they suspected would recall the the massacre of protesters in Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989. He told VOA this work was not the case, but that he had simply chosen a “sensitive” date [zh]. Neither the VOA report nor another from Chinese Human Rights Defenders [zh] specify whether He was able to show his paintings.

Parentheses mark three places in the blog post where text has been removed. It is unclear who deleted the text, or why. It is possible that He deliberately “left out” language.

Today is my holiday. And what holiday is that, you ask? Why, it’s the day I performed my streaking performance art piece “Want! Want!! Want!!!” (also called 111), of course! Now, because it’s the first day of the 11th month, naturally, I Want! Want!! Want!!! It is because of this that I have called my performance art piece “Want! Want!! Want!!!”

I even held a white flag with the words, “Please give me a ballot. I want to vote for my dearly loved leaders!” Simply like this, I performed my piece, “Want! Want!! Want!!!” at noon in Guangzhou’s Green Square. Of course, I also wanted to take the opportunity to welcome the opening of the 16th Congress of the XXX.

Now that I mention it, it’s funny–just as I was about to start my performance that day, the bright, sunny weather suddenly turned dark, and an ill wind blew in. After my performance came to an end, I was apprehended by the police’s dog-c*nt security guards and taken to the police station, where I was interrogated to get to the root of my evil acts. I was ultimately sent to the Tianhe Detention Center, where I enjoyed 15 days of inhumane treatment.

The 21st century is the century of the Chinese people. And as a Chinese person, I used a kind of “nudity” to express my rejection of and opposition to the bare, utter lack of humanity. Yes, this does have a shade of tragedy to it. Are the Chinese people indeed people? My own answer to that question frequently has me wondering. (189 characters were deleted here.)

Lately, I have felt no pride in saying “I am Chinese.” Rather, this should be changed to “I am a Chinese person who longs for freedom and democracy,” because it is only through suffering that there can be hope. Facing the current (47 characters were deleted from here), I believe democracy’s (109 characters were deleted from here).

—-Just wait and see!

Via He Guoqiang’s blog, Eagle. Translation by Little Bluegill.

Notes:

111: When spoken as a numeral, as in a phone number, one is often pronounced yāo. This sounds like the word “to want,” yào. Back.

XXX: Stands for CCP, the abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party. Back.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 16th Party Congress, 18th party congress, democracy, Guangzhou, He Guoqiang, performance art
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A young Tibetan living in China’s Gansu province stabbed himself to death and wrote a call for Tibetan freedom in his own blood while the ruling Chinese Communist Party met last month in Bejing to endorse the country’s new leaders, Tibetan sources said on Monday.

News of the protest and suicide was delayed because of tight restrictions on communications from the area during the once-in-a-decade national leadership transition, sources said.

“Last month, when the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party was going on in Beijing, a Tibetan named Jigme Tseten, 30, a resident of Tsoe county, stabbed himself to death,” a resident of the area told RFA’s Tibetan Service.

“Before dying, he wrote in his own blood on a wall of the Upper Khagya School that ‘Tibet is independent, and the Dalai Lama should return to Tibet,’” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, self-immolations, tibet politics, Tibet protests
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The trend even came to the attention of the U.S. Naval Air Forces, who seized the chance to take a jab at China’s novice status in the aircraft carrier club:

Interesting trend taking hold of “Shootering” ow.ly/fGwUx, Funny we’ve had people striking that pose for ~100 yrs@b_fung

— flynavy (@flynavy) November 29, 2012

Chinese political cartoonists have caught on, too, tackling more serious issues with this lighthearted meme:

Artist: Dashix

“Soar!” a corrupt official exhorts a hungry student, clinging to his “nutritious lunch” as he pads down the runway. The Yangcheng Evening News reported on Monday that the school system in Fenghuang County, Hunan saves about six million yuan per year by spending only two yuan per student on lunches of the allocated three. Children get only a box of milk and a palm-sized piece of bread [zh]. The school system claims it is following government regulation on expenditures. In Dashix’s illustration, the tear in a boy’s eye gets an official drooling.

Artist: Gouben

A victorious mistress lets a government seal fly as she stands on top of Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu while training a tape recorder on him. Screenshots of sex tapes surfaced this week, costing Lei his job and possibly implicating former city police chief Wang Lijun. Peering over his mistress’ bra, Lei is horrified to find his own government seal is now impotent.

Artist: so7os

China’s conscience was rattled this month by the death of five boys in Guizhou. Missing for weeks, their bodies were found in a dumpster, where they had died of carbon monoxide poisoning from the fire they lit inside. “Brothers, it’s nice and warm in here!” says a younger boy, in a tragic flight of fancy. “Let’s sleep–I’m closing the cabin door. This is our spaceship!” The “Guizhou Five” remind many Chinese of the Hans Christian Andersen story “The Little Match Girl,” once taught to schoolchildren as an example of the evils of capitalist society. The dumpster displays the slogan, “Everyone pitch in and fight to be civilized” (人人动手参 个个争当文明).

Artist: Pearl Forest

Politicians “speak south and head north.”

Artist: Lao Jue

In his opening remarks at the 18th Party Congress, Hu Jintao stressed that China should “not walk the old path of the closed and rigid, nor the evil path of changing flags and allegiances” (既不走封闭僵化的老路、也不走改旗易帜的邪路) “We Are Walking on the Correct Path” (我们走在正路上) shows seven naked men march proudly across a narrow bridge. They are the new seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, which debuted at the end of the Congress. Chinese cartoonists typically cannot depict political leaders in print, but Lao Jue is afforded a wider latitude by the Internet.

Artist: Kuang Biao

Lao Jue makes China’s journey across the river seem like a lark, but in Kuang Biao’s depiction, Xi Jinping is struggling with the hammer and sickle over one shoulder and the burden of the economy over the other while “groping for stones to cross the river” (摸着石头过河).

Artist: Jiu’an

Xi Jinping prays before jailed tweeter Zhai Xiaobing (aka @stariver), his Standing Committee zombies in tow. Zhai was detained on November 7 for a tweet comparing Final Destination 6 to the 18th Party Congress. “Dear Lord, we beg you to free Star River… Boo hoo… Black humor, this cartoon is just kidding!”

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, aircraft carrier, aircraft carrier style, Chongqing, Drawing the News, Gangnam style, Guizhou, Hu Jintao, Hunan, lei zhengfu, official corruption, Politburo Standing Committee, political cartoons, political humor, Wang Lijun, Xi Jinping, Zhai Xiaobing
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This new regime will govern a China that is increasingly two different countries. On the coast, the country is developed, with the amenities of a post-industrialized society. In the countryside, China is still a developing country, with hundreds of millions of people living in poverty. In 2010, according to Bloomberg Businessweek, there was a nearly threefold difference in per capita incomes between coastal China and inland China. Likewise, China now has more income inequality than the United States, making China 27th in the world overall.

Those Chinas want different things from their leaders. People making $20,000 a year in prosperous cities don’t need 8 percent growth. They need product safety, government accountability, transparency, clean air and water ‑ good government, in other words, without all the lies and the secret wealth. People in the interior, on the other hand, need growth and goods. Government transparency means less to those who live hand to mouth.

This is what the 21st century economy has wrought, but China clings to its 20th century political system. Ten years ‑ the expected stint of the current Politburo members (though there will be room for halftime adjustments) ‑ is a long time to live with so fundamental a contradiction. Pressures will mount from within and without for China to modernize its political approach to match the economic reforms it must undertake. But those hoping for political reform are sure to be disappointed, no matter how much they pine for them on Weibo or in the halls of the United Nations. The leadership change, remember, was all about solidarity, both for the Communist Party and with the party’s past efforts. Citizens on both ends of the spectrum may grumble, but the Chinese leadership will continue its slow and cautious approach ‑ and its focus, first and foremost, will be on consolidating power and eliminating threats to the party’s hold on power. On the Politburo’s list of priorities, political innovations will run a distant second.

Meanwhile, though little evidence remains of the 18th Party Congress which took place earlier this month, The New York Times’ Amy Qin reports that nostalgia still lingers for some residents of Beijing:

Liu Ji, 63, was one of the many sprightly retirees called upon by security officials this month to work as informal traffic cops, taking to the streets to keep unruly pedestrians and drivers in line. In a city with more than five million registered cars, it was not the most relaxing task. But Ms. Liu, a longtime Communist Party member, said it was an honor to play a role during the weeklong event, even if it meant tackling the city’s nightmarish congestion equipped with only a red armband and a flag.

“To help out even just a little is a glorious feeling,” she said.

But now, the heart of this ancient capital has returned to what passes for normal these days: hazy gray skies above the granite expanse; crowds of tourists, both Chinese and foreign, milling around and posing for photographs; and uniformed security officers watching them carefully in front of the Forbidden City. (Less familiar was the sight of some of those officers zipping around the square on two-wheeled, Segway-like vehicles as the ageless Mao Zedong gazed down from his portrait.)

Elsewhere, pirated DVDs and English-language books on China have reappeared on shelves after having been relegated to storerooms in some shops. Several prominent activists who were asked to leave Beijing during the conclave have slowly found their way back to their homes.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Beijing, inequality, leadership transition, Politburo Standing Committee, reform
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Kalsang Kyab, 24, set himself ablaze in front of a Chinese government office in Kangtsa town, raising slogans for the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Kyabje Kirti Rinpoche, the exiled head of Kirti Monastery. He passed away at the site of his protest.

The Dharamshala based Kirit Monastery in a late night release said Kalsang Kyab carried out his protest at around 6:30 pm (local time).

“Kalsang Kyab doused his body with kerosene as he walked towards the local government office building, raising slogans,” Kirit Monastery said citing sources in the region. “Upon reaching the office building, he then set himself ablaze and continued to raise slogans.”

The Chinese government’s blackout of independent media in Tibetan areas makes independent verification of reports from the region difficult or impossible. Even the number of self-immolations is uncertain: according to activist group Rangzen Alliance and writer Woeser [zh], the current total is 92. (Woeser’s tweet states 91, but predates news of the latest incident.) A post by Woeser written on August 1st and translated at High Peaks Pure Earth explains part of the discrepancy.

U.S. government-funded Radio Free Asia reported four arrests following student protests on Monday. Independent experts quoted by the similarly funded Voice of America suggested that the self-immolations have moved into a new phase in recent weeks, with activists describing this as an attempt to sway the recently installed Party leadership in Beijing.

[Columbia University's Robert] Barnett says the first phase of self-immolations began last year with monks and nuns trying to protect their monasteries from security crackdowns.

The second wave, which he says occurred for most of the past year, involved individuals in small towns sharing sympathy with those monks and nuns.

“But now in this phase we have laypeople staging these immolations in ways that are much more determined in an attempt to get a response from Chinese authorities, by having immolations in clusters, very close together, many on the same day or within a few days and many in the same place,” said Barnett.

James Leibold, a Tibet analyst for Australia’s Latrobe University in Beijing says that a broader segment of the Tibetan community is also involved in the latest protests.

[…] But Leibold says so far there is no indication that the government has changed its position on Tibet.

“Sadly, we hear the same rhetoric coming out of Beijing, and Chinese officials continually blaming a few black hands for collaborating with the Dalai Lama and the exiled Tibetan community to stir up trouble and to damage China’s ethnic unity and harmony. There’s just absolutely no will, it seems, to admit a failure of policy,” he said.

In a further broadening of the protest movement, Phayul reports that coordinated hunger strikes have broken out across Tibetan areas:

More than 60 Tibetans from different walks of life began their solidarity hunger strike in their evening of November 26 in their respective places. According to Kanyag Tsering, an exiled monk who has been closely monitoring the situation inside Tibet, the Tibetans will end their hunger strike in the morning of November 28.

The campaign is being observed in various cities across the tradition boundaries of Tibet.

“The simultaneous hunger strike is being carried out in Tibet’s capital Lhasa, Drango, Jomda, Zachukha, Tridu, Sertha, Siling, Rebkong, Kardze and Trindu in China,” Tsering told Phayul. “They have also been offering prayers for the self-immolators.”

According to the same source, the Tibetans taking part in this campaign come from different walks of like and are “highly educated.”

“The participants in the solidarity campaign include government officials, writers, monks, and businessmen.”

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, Dalai Lama, hunger strike, media censorship, Robert Barnett, self-immolations, student protests, Tibet, United States, Voice of America, Woeser
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In this contradiction—between Singles Day and illegal tweets, between needing the middle class to sustain the Party’s rule, and punishing the middle class for passing jokes around—lies the Communist Party’s essential problem. For years, the Party, and many observers abroad, believed that the middle class would be the Party’s greatest ally, that it had gained so much during the boom years that it would never risk the trappings of prosperity for fuzzy notions of political freedom. It was an idea that reached all the way back to the ancient sage Mencius, who declared that “Those who have property are also inclined to preserve social stability.” In modern China, that turned into the belief that the middle class would become the xiaofei qianwei, zhengzhi houwei: “the consumer avant-garde and political rear guard.”

[…] The arrest of Zhai Xiaobing, which has inspired a petition calling for his release, stirred a particular kind of dread among China’s self-made liberals because it reached into the privileged domain beyond the Great Firewall, the electronic dinner table where members of China’s new knowledge class were supposed to be able to joke freely, as long as they kept shopping. Day by day, it seems, the Party is confronting the fact that prosperity alone—the politics of goods—is no match for the politics of information.

Yasheng Huang questioned the nature of the link between stability and prosperity in a recent essay at Foreign Policy, featured on CDT earlier this week. “Some analysts believe that the Chinese people tolerate corruption in exchange for fast growth,” he wrote. “This is a bit like saying that New Yorkers tolerated Hurricane Sandy. Fast growth maintains a façade of stability not because it has secured tacit complicity from the Chinese people, but because it has funded the instruments of repression.”

The petition for @stariver can be found here.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: 18th party congress, CCP, consumer class, consumerism, Evan Osnos, Great Firewall, mencius, middle class, singles day, social stability, stability, Twitter, Yasheng Huang
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