Category: Uncategorized

The Unofficial Google Earth Blog has occasional goodies related to China:

• A 3D model of the Buddha at Lantau Island in Hong Kong.
• A Chinese placename layer. (Haven’t checked how good this is yet)
• Photos of Japanese and Chinese subs spotted in Google Earth.
• And you can now dig a hole to or from China. Alot of the east coast ends up in Argentina.

Also, the Tsim Sha Tsui Clock Tower lives – as a 3D model.

A couple of weeks ago a vicious rumor spread through the Chinese Internet, according PCOnline (太平洋电脑网), reported access to Google.com had disappeared for some users. It wasn’t true.

So in this grand tradition of spreading rumors, I say: MySpace.com may possibly perhaps be blocked. Visual Traceroute shows a failure to connect beyond CHINANET Shanghai. Through May 8th, MySpace.cn reported that 31,826 users registered. Redline China has determined there were over 41,000 registrations by May 9th based on MySpace.cn editor Wu Kong’s friends list, since he is automatically friended to new registrants. This isn’t terribly scientific, since Chinese users can delete him from their friends just like Tom. Tom, along with a number of other non-Chinese MySpace users, are also among Wukong’s friends. Whatever the number, it doesn’t seem to have impressed anybody yet.

It is still possible to access questionable profiles through MySpace.cn.

In seems that one of our own, blogger Tim Johnson of China Rises, (as a side hobby he’s the Beijing correspondent for the McClatchy Newspapers & Junk Bond Imperium/Emporium) has become the target of a vengeful source. Tim recently wrote a piece entitled “China Orders Resettlement of Thousands of Tibetans”, and a Case Western professor of Tibetan Studies, who appears in the article, feels he has been misquoted. Here’s the relevant bits of Tim’s piece. First, the nut graf:

ZENGSHOL, Tibet – In a massive campaign that recalls the socialist engineering of an earlier era, the Chinese government has relocated some 250,000 Tibetans – nearly one-tenth of the population – from scattered rural hamlets to new “socialist villages,” ordering them to build new housing largely at their own expense and without their consent.

Indeed. Very concerning. Here’s his quotes of one Professor Melvyn Goldstein of the Center for Research on Tibet at Case Western University:

“”It’s created a building boom,” said Melvyn C. Goldstein, a social anthropologist and expert on Tibet at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “I think it’s phenomenally successful, more than I would’ve believed.””

This is followed by a bit about how Human Rights Watch paints a bleaker picture. Then Goldstein is cited again at the end of the article:

“Goldstein noted that the settling of Han Chinese in Tibet’s major cities already has weakened the influence of traditional Tibetan elites. “The cities are a loss,” said Goldstein, referring to demography from a Tibetan point of view. “The last hope is to keep the villages intact. If there’s a battleground for Tibetan identity, it’s in the rural areas.””

When I first read this article, the first thing that leapt out at me was that it reminded me of alot of the ethnonationalism that permeates discussions of Tibet. The article says that the relocation recalls the massive social engineering of an earlier era – but wasn’t it just a few years ago that Peter Hessler wrote in Time Magazine, as did many others, about the forced relocation of Chinese along the Yangtze for the Three Gorges Dam? And didn’t that also mean rural villagers had to give up their way of life – their identity, as Johnson points out Tibetan identity is threatened by relocation? Yet Johnson’s article frames this as a unique crime being perpetrated against one ethnic group in China – Tibetans – using extraordinary measures that have not been used since “an earlier era”, even though less than a decade ago the complaint du jour about China, the catastrophe of the Three Gorges, involved the same problems and Han Chinese citizens? Here, I felt, was the same tired ethnically biased narrative we see about Tibet: the Tibetans suffer in extra-special ways compared to Han Chinese. I am willing to consider that more Tibetans are imprisoned, tortured, denied opportunities and face other forms of severe discrimination. I lived in Xinjiang, and the Uyghurs certainly do. But rarely does anything written about Tibet remark that Han Chinese often suffer the same problems – in fact, the tendency is to make Tibetans out as an isolated and special case.

But before I could write about that, a reader at BoingBoing and acquaintance of Dr. Goldstein submitted Dr. Goldstein’s response to Tim Johnson’s article. And I want to take a moment to tip my hat to Xeni Jardin for posting that readers comment and also linking to my critique of BoingBoing and another post they had. Xeni called me thoughtful. My heart flutters.

Key points of Dr. Goldstein’s complaint are:

1) he never said relocation was “phenomenally successful, more than I would’ve believed”, as the article implies. He said “a marked increase in the standard of living as rural Tibetan families are participating more and more successfully in non-farm income producing jobs for part of the year.”

2) “Initially the government’s idea was to have these new houses built along main roads, but this is not what is going on now in the areas we are conducting research in Shigatse prefecture,” says Goldstein, though Johnson states the government “claims that the new housing on main roads”.

3) Goldstein directly contests HRW’s claim, repeated by Johnson, that “None of those interviewed reported being given the right to challenge or refuse participation in the campaign”, when he wrote “Right now the villagers where we work have a 5 year window to decide whether to participate and rebuild”. Both claims could be correct – Tibet has more than one village. But this was not addressed in the article.

4) While HRW claims that villagers must take out thousands of dollars in loans to rebuild, Goldstein describes loans on a sliding scale based on relative wealth and what sort of housing they choose to construct.

5) Goldstein concludes “Consequently, as a result of this program. there is a building boom in rural areas that is affording rural Tibetans who are carpenters, stone masons, painters, and those who have tractors and trucks etc., increased access to non-farm income, and that is having a very positive impact on the overall standard of living. So in my view, this is a relatively benign program aimed at improving the quality of life and goes along with government interest in speeding up rural electrification, running water programs, etc. That is what I was trying to convey [in a previous interview].”

These quotes are all from an email Goldstein says he sent to Johnson before the article was published. Needless to say, it only furthers my belief that stories about Tibet are trimmed, folded, cut, bent and even broken in order to fit into the slot marked “Brutal Chinese Occupation of Tibet”, because apparently that’s the narrative it has to match. Any complications, grey areas, inconsistencies or problems are elided. When that narrative is repeated so often, do you know how alot of Americans will read such articles? They won’t. They skim it and say “Oh, dear, that Tibet is still suffering [like they did last week, last year, the year before that, ad infinitum]… what’s on the sports page?” And they won’t learn anything new.

As for Dr. Goldstein’s anger at being misquoted, I would suggest considering 1) reporters have editors who sometimes don’t know Tibet from a six-limbed starfish, 2) reporters have deadlines, and 3) remember Brad DeLong and Susan Rasky’s First Rule for Sources: Know Your Customers. The interviewee sets the rules, not the journalist. You can always decline to be quoted.

UPDATE: I contacted Tim Johnson about his article. He declined to comment and stands by the article. Fair enough.

中国在那里?

Boing Boing linked to this popular “Map of the Internet” at XKCD. I noticed the Chinese Internet wasn’t represented, and XKCD’s map is on a Creative Commons license, so I decided to make an expansion. I think I got the relative membership of Sina, Sohu and QQ, but I guesstimated on the BBSes (Tianya, Netease), and made up the video sites like Tudou and 6rooms. I realize there is enormous overlap between users on Chinese websites, but then again, the same goes for MySpace and the other services on the other side. If anybody has some better numbers on users, let me know – or copy it and make your own. I’d love to make this more detailed, but after drawing the Great Firewall I was exhausted and I’m going out in five minutes. Anyway, the point being the Chinese Internet gets left out sometimes even though its fairly big.

Gmail.cn did not respond to pings today. Neither does its parent ISM Technologies. WHOIS still declares Gmail.cn’s status to be “OK”.

Huh.

So China Digital Times pointed out that Guy Sorman, professional China-doubter (or basher, depending where you stand), has a new article in City Journal titled Empire of Lies. Well, I’m glad Sorman decided to use a calm, measured tone for his article. I find it deeply ironic that the article was also printed in Frontpagemag.com, not exactly known for truth-telling.

I can’t argue with Sorman’s point that China has some enormous problems, and I’m sick and tired as well of the whole “China’s Century” meme. But some of the articles points just make me shake my head, for example:

• On the Hong Kong press, in an insert by Howard Husock: “Their press is free and delightfully rich, ranging from the New York Post-ish Apple Daily to the historic English-language South China Morning Post, one of the best sources of information about Chinese politics.” The SCMP is one of the best sources of information about Chinese politics? Not unless Hu Jintao is a horse. Considering 1) its online irrelevance, 2) that it reported Donald Tsang’s election appointment with the headline “Incumbent Reflects on a Wonderful Journey” while ignoring protesters of the sort Sorman considers important, not to mention 3) the humorless drama that was Mark L. Clifford’s tenure, or 4) the accusation that owner Robert Kuok is loyal to the CCP and that journalists Willy Lo Lam and Jasper Becker were fired for political reasons, this is a little hard to swallow. SCMP has been moving further and further into the sort of wealthy Asia expat press that caters in fat real estate listings and racetrack scores. Press freedom is certainly better in Hong Kong, and the SCMP does still have hardworking reporters, but I can’t help but think anyone who believes the SCMP is at the cutting edge is, well, reading the wrong paper. Oh, and I have been told that Apple Daily is to the New York Post as apples are to…
• “peasants, unfamiliar with the national language, speak only in regional dialects” – uh, ever heard of Cantonese, Shanghainese, Fujianese? These dialects are also spoken in cities. But hey, lets not argue with the government’s implication that dialects are only for the backwards, uneducated and poor.
• “The government puts the number of what it calls these “illegal” or “mass” incidents—and they’re occurring in the industrial suburbs, too—at 60,000 a year, doubtless underreporting them. Some experts think that the true figure is upward of 150,000 a year, and increasing. The uprisings are really mutinies, sporadic and unpremeditated. They express peasant families’ despair over the bleak future that awaits them and their children.” Well, if you’re gonna go with 60,000, that was the Chinese number in 2003 according to one of three different sets of mass incident statistics. And for none of those series is it clear whether a “mass incident” or “public disturbance” is a “mutiny”. It may also include “delaying delivering of the mail”. There’s nothing to suggest that all of these are “mutinies”, “sporadic” or “unmeditated”. We don’t know what they are.
• “Were Western consumers and investors to turn away, the Chinese economy would collapse, leading in all probability to the fall of the Party.” It’s generally accepted the rest of the world would be kinda screwed as well.
• “Yan Yfan underscores my fundamental error: “You don’t have any confidence in the Party’s ability to resolve the pertinent issues you have raised.” He’s right; I don’t.” Fair enough, but one could stand to give the Chinese people a little credit. In Sorman’s reading, Chinese people are either a) angry, voiceless peasants, b) Communist party parvenues or c) dissidents who are on “our” side. It reminds me of Jamie K’s comment on “civic subhumanity” – if they’re not with “us”, they must be for “them”.

Slashdot has been jumpin’ about a line in the MySpace China Terms and Conditions that says users can “click a button” to report inappropriate conduct. Inappropriate content includes, in China’s case, “undermining national unity”, “cult and feudal superstition”, or “undermines social stability” I mentioned previously. It’s not exactly a button that you click – what the terms refer to is the contact link at the bottom of every page, and to select the “report inappropriate content” choice for your subject heading. It’s practically identical to the “report inappropriate content” feature in MySpace.com. The difference here, of course, is the legalese in the Terms and Conditions that refers to “undermining social stability” and all that.

What’s interesting is that you can report international pages as well, so it’s not simply asking Chinese users to report dissidents or pornographers on MySpace.cn, but those anywhere on the global MySpace network. If I file a complaint about an American users MySpace.com page, it is sent to MySpace.cn (when I’m logged into MySpace.cn). It will be interesting to see if how Chinese users will respond to this. Assuming the Chinese government does not impose a list of their own of MySpace pages they don’t like, it will be up to Chinese consumers to report sites that have politically incorrect speech.

If the Chinese government does impose a list, then there’s still nothing to stop dissenting MySpace users abroad from creating new pages. One could imagine “MySpacebombing” becoming a form of protest speech.

Of course, the real question is, what will you see when you visit a banned international page on MySpace.cn? Will you see the “Profile Undergoing Maintainance” message, or will they be more forthright about why it’s not there?

I’ve been tardy with posting on the case of Huseyin Celil, a Uyghur-Canadian man recently convicted to life in prison in Urumqi, Xinjiang. Considering I used to live and blog in Urumqi, I feel like I’ve been remiss.

Background: According to the Globe and Mail (courtesy Opposite End), Huseyin was an imam at a small mosque in Kashgar who chafed at government restrictions (e.g. no call to prayer using a loudspeaker) in the 1990s, when the government ratched up the “Strike Hard” campaign on separatist activity. He was harassed by the police and spent time in jail, then fled on a fake passport to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan in 1996. In 1998, the Kyrgyz arrested and jailed him for ““creating hatred among the people,” a charge related to his religious sermons.” After release, he fled to Uzbekistan, then Turkey via Syria, marrying an Uzbek girl on the way. When he received Canadian asylum in 2001, it was the first legit passport he’d ever had. Somewhere between 1999 and 2001, he allegedly returned to Bishkek and murdered a man, which his lawyer says ““It’s just not realistic for this guy to have done that,” said Chris MacLeod. “He would have forsaken his UNHCR status, left his disabled kid and wife, forged documents, made it there and back — it’s just not doable.”” In 2006, he and his family left Hamilton, Ontario, to visit his wife’s sick mother in Uzbekistan. That’s when the Uzbek police picked him up, saying he was listed on the “Interpol National Central Bureau in Uzbekistan” wanted list. They never saw him again, or even heard about him until the Chinese government told their version of the Story of Celil…

According to the court documents, Celil joined the East Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), a listed terrorist group active in central Asia, in November 1997 and was appointed as a senior instructor in Kyrgyzstan.

While there, Celil allegedly recruited several people to the ETLO and sent them to terrorist training camps in the Pakistan-controled Kashmir, the documents said.

Celil was also active in another listed terrorist organization, the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), for which he helped raise funds, recruit members and organize training, the documents said.

The documents said that in 1997, Celil met ETIM’s former head Hasan Mahsum, who was shot dead by the Pakistan army in 2003, and worked directly under Mahsum’s command.

Celil was a key member pushing for the alliance of the ETIM and ETLO in 1998, the documents said.

The government said “East Turkistan” terrorists had close links with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, and were responsible for a series of murder, bombs, hijacking and arson in Xinjiang.

The documents said Huseyin Celil, with the intention of overthrowing the people’s republic and the socialist system, in 1997 provided 80,000 yuan (US$10,256) for the establishment of a new terrorist group, named “Hizbollah”, in the southern Guangdong Province.

The money was used for to purchase guns and provide terrorist training, the documents said.

Wait… back up, what was that?

the establishment of a new terrorist group, named “Hizbollah”, in the southern Guangdong Province.

Hizbollah? Let’s see, here’s a Chinese version of the same thing (more or less)… ah, here it is: 真主党. That is “Hizbollah”… which means Party of Allah, which is awfully generic. There was once a similarly named group (“东突伊斯兰真主党”), allegedly, involved in the Yining Riots of 1997. But in Guangdong??? Considering the Chinese government still hasn’t proven most of their previous assertions about Uyghur terrorism, this comes off as jumping the shark. And it’s just so… convenient that Celil is the missing link between the ETIM and ETLO, both not seen in years. Just a little too convenient if you ask me.

So the Chinese and Canadian governments aren’t exactly seeing eye to eye on this. The poor Canadians. As John Kennedy has pointed out at Global Voices Online, they’re already getting flack for this on the bulletin boards. But consider this: lately, Canadian citizens just ain’t getting their back covered abroad. The US sends Maher Arer off to Syria for torture and bans a psychotherapist for writing about LSD use – now this? I suggest American backpackers reconsider having a Canadian flag stitched to their bag. It could backfire.

Anyway, one Chinese commenter said: “The Canadian Prime Minister says his government “believes” there to be no evidence proving the accused’s guilt, so it seems this makes everything they say and do excusable. What a joke! Since you haven’t seen the evidence, what exactly are you “believing”?”

And so true! There hasn’t been any evidence shown to the public, or the Canadian Prime Minister either. But that hasn’t stopped the Times of India or the Counterterrorism Blog from taking advantage of the situation:

BEIJING: In a major blow to Pakistan’s counter-terrorism credentials, China has for the first time publicly acknowledged the existence of terrorist camps within the territory of its “all-weather” ally.

What? You mean it doesn’t count when in 2004 Xinhua, as reprinted on the webpage of the PRC Permanent Mission to the UN Geneva, said that East Turkestan terrorists had crossed from Afghanistan into Pakistan to establish bases the Pakistanis couldn’t find? In which they also were concerned about them sneaking into, ahem, India as well based on a – wait a minute – Times of India story claiming Uyghur terrorist camps were identified in Pakistan?

I think I have your number, Times of India.

The damning confirmation came in a court document in the trial of 37-year-old Huseyin Celil, a China-born Uygur-Canadian, who was today sentenced to life imprisonment by a Chinese court in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, for “taking part in terrorist activities and plotting to split the country.”

Oh, I see: China confirmed (not in anyway aimed at Pakistan) that they had some evidence that no one else gets to see? I still haven’t seen photos or identities of the 17 terrorists allegedly captured in that raid back in January, though I have read that President Musharraf gave a speech in 2004 about killing an alleged Uyghur terrorist leader in Pakistan (does that count as “confirmation”?), but let’s not let that stand in the way of a breathless, inaccurate article slamming the Pakistanis.

Speaking of taking advantage of the situation to plug your own thing, there’s also the Huseyin Celil homepage. I dunno if this guy is innocent or not (he’s certainly, at least, not proven guilty to anyone except Chinese authorities), but I don’t think getting your photos of torture from the FLG is the best PR move. First, the Chinese government is going to think you’ve joined a massive conspiracy, which I don’t think will move them to the negotiating table quicker. Second, FLG allegations have not been substantiated by anyone except attorney David Matas, whose investigative techniques appeared to be asking FLG members if they phoned real doctors in China who admitted to harvesting FLG organs, the members said “yes”, and Matas turned around and said “the evidence is overwhelming!”. (I blogged about this on the old blog, it’s gone now) Third, it’s hard to take seriously a group that claims millions have resigned the CCP through a website they maintain where I can type in “Steven Seagal” and VOILA, Steven Seagal has resigned from the CCP. So consider some new friends, poor Mrs. Celil.

The other thing is the translation of Celil’s testimony at his murder trial in Bishkek. Is this really what you want for the defense?

Eastern Turkistan has a role of defensive city wall and bastion between China and the Central Asian Republics, and this could limit the Chinese invaders to spread to the Central Asia. But now, since there is no such a wall to push back the Chinese, the Chinese invaders have been expanding towards the Central Asia very fast!

The Yellow Peril defense! Excellent!

Today, considering our interrogation like an enemy as the Kyrgyzstan state seem to benefit as political factors and diplomacy may seem to be reasonable in respect to its relations to China. It is not controversial that China is providing with some little benefits today. But, have our brothers thought of tomorrow? How far can they understand the Communist China? How much do they understand about the threatening national psychology of the Chinese? With this opportunity, we caution our brothers to be deeply aware of Chinese Evil.

Evil with a capital E! And, well, there’s more of that. Most Chinese citizens won’t have alot of sympathy for this sort of thing, though I can tell you there are plenty of Uyghurs who feel this way but don’t go around starting Guangdong Hezbollahs. But this just seems counterproductive. Oh, and the whole thing about “I made a videocassette about Jihad but I didn’t give it to anybody” argument he gives? Won’t play well in Peoria.

There has been a repeated rejoinder to my post Free Advice to the Free Tibet Crowd, that has been phrased as such: “It’s one thing to argue that Tibetans should take their case to the Chinese people; it is quite another to actually do it. How would you go about it?” and “A valid point in general, but engaging the Chinese population when such strict information controls, particularly political information, exist is easier said than done. Perhaps an answer to this question could elevate your argument.”Fair enough, and so I give you…

Step One: Recognizing Chinese People are Involved Already

Chinese people constitute some 98% (or some other ridiculous majority I can’t be bothered to look up) of the People’s Republic of China, which Tibet is a part of whether you like it or not. I am not talking about the government. I’m talking about individuals. If democracy is important to you, perhaps popular opinion is as well.

“Initiative must come from individuals. Unless each individual develops a sense of responsibility, the whole community cannot move. So therefore it is very essential that we should not feel that individual effort is meaningless. The movement of the society, community or group of people means joining individuals. Society means a collection of individuals… the ultimate agreement or solution must be found by the Chinese and Tibetans themselves. For that we need support from the Chinese side, I mean from the Chinese people’s side; that is very essential.” – The Dalai Lama

“I think you should keep in mind compassion with wisdom. It is very important to utilize one’s faculty of intelligence to judge the long-term and short-term consequences of one’s actions.” – The Dalai Lama

Step Two: Learn to Communicate with Chinese People

Learn Chinese.

“Nonviolence, on the other hand, means dialogue, it means using language to communicate.” – The Dalai Lama

Step Three: Understand That Chinese People Form Their Own Beliefs and Have Self-Respect

Chinese people are not programmed robots. They actually form their own opinions, and they don’t believe they are stupid. It is not enough to learn the language; you must listen to their perspective and respect them as fully formed human beings who believe it sincerely. If all you do is harass them about being genocidal maniacs and mindless Communist zombies, they won’t listen to it. Because you’re being a jerk, and they don’t deserve personal blame for the actions of their government. Just like it’s not my personal fault as an American that thousands of Iraqis are dead, and if some Chinese guy starts telling me it is, I don’t listen to him either.

“And dialogue means compromise: listening to others’ views, and respecting others’ rights, in a spirit of reconciliation.” – The Dalai Lama

Step Four: Some Chinese People Use the Internet

… they read alot more Western stuff than you might imagine, and they even make their own proxies. Or why don’t you try making some MySpace friends*? Or how about diverting all that money for lobbying on Capitol Hill to some communications initiatives? How about bridge blogging? Hey, there are some Chinese people who read this blog, and I’m not even smart enough to blog in Chinese. I would if I could, though. I’d recommend the Handbook for Cyber-Dissidents, but unfortunately that only teaches those living in restricted societies – not how to speak to those people from outside and find common ground and friendship, which is a skill for which there ought to be a handbook (paging Rebecca MacKinnon, book idea). It’s difficult work demanding the empathy, wisdom and patience of… how do I put this… a bodhisattva.

At the very least, for crying out loud, make some decent Chinese banners and Chinese versions of your websites. At the very, very least.

*Act fast before supplies run out.

Shorter Primer: Try paying attention to what Buddhism and the Dalai Lama actually say before embarking on some arrogant self-righteous crusade – that’s been going nowhere fast for a long, long time.