China claims it doesn't censor the Internet

While many countries block off some Web sites, China has long drawn heightened scrutiny because of the breadth and sophistication of its Internet censorship.

Which is why it came as a surprise on Tuesday when a Chinese government official claimed at a United Nations summit here that no Net censorship existed at all.

The only problem: Few cases of Net censorship are as carefully and publicly documented as the Great Firewall of China. A study by researchers at Harvard Law School found 19,032 Web sites that were inaccessible inside China.

What is Buddhism supposed to be like?

I thought it was supposed to be like this:

But then I found these pictures.

China's left turn

Significant new policies mean a decisive shift back towards state intervention. This is likely to have important implications for foreign investors and manufacturers and may lead to higher wage costs, stronger unions and stricter regulation...


Two new documents from the Chinese government, disclosed officially but little noticed abroad, left no doubt that 'leftist' factions have won the argument to rebalance economic policy after two decades of a dash for growth at any cost.

Even the state news agency, Xinhua, said the new policies responded to 'rampant pollution, growing wealth disparity and complaints about the high costs of education, housing and medical services'...

Reform has lifted hundreds of millions of Chinese out of poverty but now the party’s leaders want to tilt the scales towards equality....

Among the effects already felt by business are tighter controls on foreign investment, pressure to raise wages, official demands for union recognition in every foreign enterprise, state curbs to cool property prices, restrictions on foreign property ownership and a heavier hand of regulation over commercial activity.

Tax breaks for foreign investors could come under scrutiny next, while the government is already phasing out subsidies for exporters...

The reasons range from the Communist party’s fear of rising discontent to nationalism and the renaissance of 'New Left' theoreticians. 'China has now come to a critical moment in building a comprehensively well-off society,' said vice-premier Wu Yi, a veteran advocate of 'reform and opening up'.

The new generation of leaders has reacted to riots and protests with stern repression — but it also sees the need for pre-emptive concessions to stave off challenges...

One of the government documents summarised the proceedings at an executive committee of the State Council headed by Wen Jiabao. It promised aid for farmers and said the state would intervene to stabilise grain and fertiliser prices.

It ordered local authorities to make sure private employers paid migrant workers on time. And it commanded them to curb soaring property prices by imposing controls over land supply, bank lending and market access...

The second document, which emerged from a meeting of the Communist party’s central committee, enshrined the theory that unites all these regulatory moves in a coherent doctrine.

This is Hu Jintao’s pursuit of a 'harmonious society' in which grievances are smoothed out under the party’s guidance.

The document called for 'co-ordinated development, social equity and justice'— a far cry from the great reformer Deng Xiaoping’s reported declaration three decades ago that 'to get rich is glorious'.

The new leaders called for 'transforming the economic growth pattern' and the premier stated unequivocally that the eradication of poverty was a top priority...

Commenting on a popular website, an economist named Jiang Hai said four things struck him about China’s shift to the left on his return after three years abroad.

First, he said dissatisfied young people were leaning to the left 'because they have no memories of starvation in Mao’s time'.

Second, ordinary citizens had turned left because they were sick of the bureaucratic corruption that had flourished under reform.

Third, Jiang argued, the barons of state-owned industries were hanging on to their power and trying to stop free-market reform.

And, finally, he said, Hu Jintao and his comrades were afraid of a complicated modern economy but familiar with orthodox ideology...

The killing of a Tibetan nun has overshadowed Beijing's Olympic plans for Everest

Carrying the Olympic flame to the summit of Everest live on television is, even by Chinese standards, a demanding challenge.

This week mountaineering authorities in Lhasa announced they wanted to limit the number of foreign climbers on the Tibetan side of the 8,850 metre (29,035ft) peak in spring 2007 to allow a trial run to assess the technology and manpower needed to start the Beijing Olympics from the summit of the world.

But the propaganda value has been severely compromised by video footage taken by a western mountaineer of a 17-year-old Tibetan nun being shot in the back by Chinese border guards as they tried to stop a group of 73 refugees crossing the Nangpa La, a 5,800 metre pass 15 miles west of Everest, to Nepal.

The nun was Kelsang Namtso from Nagchu prefecture, the only daughter in a family of six. Like many Tibetans, she had no access to education and planned to study at the Dolma Ling nunnery in India. Travelling with her childhood friend Dolma Palkyi, she endured high winds and deep snow. The two young women ran out of food as they approached the difficult pass.

The trail to the Nangpa La pass is overlooked by the base camp of the 8,200 metre mountain Cho Oyu, often used as a training peak by climbers gaining experience for an attempt on Everest. Footage of People's Armed Police (PAP) taking aim at refugees and of bodies hitting the snow was taken by Romanian mountaineer Sergiu Matei and broadcast around the world....

Begging for justice in China's capital

They arrive from distant villages and towns in groups of five or less, eyes downcast as they approach the entrance to the walled compound. Many wear the drab bulky clothes of China's hardscrabble countryside, and their bags are stuffed with dog-eared documents, tattered photos, and photocopied letters.

They are China's growing army of petitioners, seekers of justice in a labyrinth that often seems designed merely to thwart them. Many spend years, even decades, appealing to the government to correct the abuses committed in its name, propelled by the belief that somewhere in the system is a sympathetic official who will heed their cry. Their chances of getting their complaints heard is estimated to be just one in 500.

Rapid economic growth has transformed the lives of China's poor, lifting hundreds of millions of people out of wretched conditions. But the dismantling of the welfare system, together with rampant corruption and illegal land seizures, has seeded social tensions that often erupt into confrontation with local authorities. And in a political order stacked against them, China's dispossessed face an uphill battle to voice their grievances over the injustices that scar their lives.

"For these people, petitioning is the only channel. They can't turn to their local congress or the courts," says He Junzhi, a political scientist at Fudan University in Shanghai.

China's modern petitioning system - called xinfang, or "letters and visits" - has its roots in dynastic times when commoners could seek the intervention of the emperor and his mandarins in their local affairs. One method was to travel to the capital and bang a grievance drum outside an imperial institution to summon help. Visitors to modern xinfang offices still speak of "petitioning the emperor."

There are no limits on how many petitions can be filed, and to which agencies. Nor are there clear guidelines on how xinfang offices should deal with petitions, which can also be sent by post or e-mail. The result is a Byzantine system that provides a safety valve of sorts in a country where the rule-of-law is still a work in progress. More than 11 million petitions are received annually, almost double the number of legal cases handled by the courts.

"The impression among many government officials is that until the legal system is built up, xinfang is serving an important function," says Jason Tower, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan studying dispute resolution in China.

Last year, the number of mass protests rose to more than 87,000, up from 10,000 in 1994. Party leaders recently agreed to reform the system after a surge in unrest linked to land grabs and other abuses, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

However, researchers say that far from quelling tensions, new restrictions on petitioner gatherings may actually be radicalizing complainants. In squatter camps in Beijing, rural petitioners are finding common cause with each other, stirring a nascent protest movement. Some use extreme methods to vent their rage: In 2003, a farmer nearly died after setting fire to himself in Tiananmen Square. He had traveled to the capital to protest the illegal demolition of his house.

"There's a growing notion that the only way to resolve disputes is by large numbers [of petitioners] getting together. The more attention you can draw, the better chance you have of getting the dispute solved," says Mr. Tower.

Cai Zhenfang's story began in 1998 when her home in Shanghai, which had been in her mother's family for four generations, was earmarked for clearance. She refused an offer of resettlement and sued the city government. Then, she says, her troubles really started. Thugs attacked her family and drove them out without any compensation before her home was demolished. Her daughter was excluded from primary school on the orders of the mayor's office, she claims.

After her local petitions and lawsuits were rejected, Ms. Cai traveled to Beijing in 2003 to ask the national government to intervene. She alleges that thugs sent from Shanghai intercepted her and bundled her out of the capital to prevent her from filing her petition, a common tactic by local authorities trying to cover their tracks. Scores of "retrievers" wait daily outside xinfang offices in Beijing, looking for petitioners from their particular hometown to intercept before they can raise the alarm.

When the party's central committee met this month, Cai sneaked into the Beijing hotel where the top leaders were staying with her bundle of documents. Police grabbed her and beat her so badly that she lost her hearing in one ear, she claims. Then they sent her back to Shanghai.

"Local officials don't want people to travel to Beijing, because if too many are petitioning, then they [local officials] will feel political pressure," says Mr. He. "The central government wants leaders to resolve problems at the local level."

11.5% China's population are internal migrants

China now has 150 million migrant workers: report
Sun Oct 29, 2006 12:19am ET163
Email This Article | Print This Article | Reprints
Chinese officials estimate the migrant population has reached 150 million, doubling over the past decade as poor rural residents flocked to cities to take part in the country's economic boom, state media said on Sunday.

The figure for migrants now amounts to 11.5 percent of the population of China, the world's most populous nation, Xinhua news agency reported, citing Wang Guoqiang, deputy director of the State Population and Family Planning Commission.

More than 80 percent are rural migrants seeking jobs and would make up the majority of the floating population for a long time, Wang told a national conference in Shanghai.

In Shanghai one third of the city's population of 5.81 million people were from other places, Xinhua cited statistics from last year as showing.

Farmers from vast rural China have flocked into cities since market reforms started in 1980s, contributing to the country's economic boom by staffing construction sites, factories and restaurants.

But they have met barriers in getting social benefits such as health care and education for their children.

Is it highly doubtful that PLA soldiers would open fire on refugees?

If Pyongyang ignores tough warnings by China and other countries and goes ahead with a second nuclear test, Beijing could likely revoke a military-ally-like treaty with North Korea to end the "blood and flesh" friendship with its neighboring country, Chinese analysts say.

There are also signs that Beijing has escalated its pressure on Pyongyang ahead of its reported second nuclear test, as China has closed three customs offices in northeastern China that handle trade with North Korea.

In July, China and North Korea celebrated the 45th anniversary of the "China-DPRK Friendship and Mutual Collaboration Treaty", which contains a clause stipulating that each side will help the other defend against any foreign invasion. That is, virtually tieing the two countries as military allies.

But the commitment, especially from the North Korea side, has been highly unreliable. Pyongyang stood by idle when China and the former Soviet Union engaged in military conflicts in the 1960s.

And now, particularly in light of North Korea conducting its nuclear test, the treaty could become a strategic liability for China should Pyongyang's moves result in foreign forces becoming involved on the peninsula. Although the possibility is slim at this stage, but increasing in the face of North Korea's defiance, Beijing certainly does not want to help North Korea in such an eventuality.

Pyongyang's nuclear test caught Beijing by surprise, prompting a fierce debate among policymakers about what to do with the "friend", sources say. One of the options being considered is for Beijing to use the treaty as leverage to press Pyongyang to fall into line and return to the six-party talks on its nuclear program, as all the other countries involved - China, Russia, the US, Japan and South Korea - are demanding…

North Korea watchers say that the Kim regime is entering a delicate period of selecting a successor to Dear Leader Kim. Too much outside pressure would give leverage to hardliners, and a wait-and-see approach could therefore be a wiser option.

One school of thought among China's policymakers argues that the Kim regime has been isolated for so long that it cannot be "further" isolated, so, beyond helping hardliners, any measures will be a waste of time.

Therefore, until such time as a second nuclear test, Beijing is expected to seek a balance. On the one hand, it thinks that Pyongyang needs to be taught a lesson, as China's number two leader, Wu Bangguo, said this week - that Pyongyang should be made to pay a "high price". One the other hand, out of its geopolitical and strategic concerns, China will make all effort to avoid a sudden collapse of the North Korea regime.

It is also important to note that North Korea's test and Iran's nuclear program are linked. That is, China does not want to show that it is too harsh on North Korea, while being conciliatory to Iran.

Beijing fears that the collapse of North Korea would result in millions of refugees flooding into China. China has begun to build a fence along its border with North Korea, but it is highly doubtful if People's Liberation Army soldiers would open fire on refugees.

What planet does this guy live on? Chinese soldiers fired on their own people during the Tiananmen massacre, and more recently have fired on Tibetans near China's border with Nepal.

Applebee's America

[Douglas Sosnik, who worked for President Bill Clinton; and Matthew Dowd, who advised President Bush in his last two campaigns], along with former Associated Press reporter Ron Fournier, have dissected how and why their bosses won the White House in a new book called Applebee's America.

Each campaign reached potential voters by using many of the same strategies and tactics used by businesses like Applebee's Restaurant. But, they say, Clinton and Bush would never have been able to win, as Douglas Sosnik explains, unless voters felt a special bond.

How Does Yu Hua Compare with Wang Shuo?

China Daily

It has been 10 years since Yu Hua, one of the most famous novelists in today's China, published his last fiction work.

Back in the 1980s and 1990s, Yu was a prominent figure in the avant-garde literary movement, which swept across the Chinese literary world at the time.

He was quite prolific. Between 1984 and 1995 he wrote a total of 12 books. Two of his most widely read novels, "To Live (huo zhe)" and "The Chronicle of a Blood Merchant (Xu Sanguan mai xie ji)" were listed among last decade's 10 most influential books in China.

His books also have received international acclaim, winning many awards in Europe and the United States and being translated into a dozen foreign languages.

"To Live" was later adapted into a movie directed by Zhang Yimou and starring Gong Li. It won the Special Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1994...

tremendous or trash?

The China of Yu's imagination is a kind of comic-book version of the real thing. It is lawless, frenetic place, where corruption, gambling, prostitution and shady business deals are commonplace.

As for the heroes, Li Guangtou, the younger brother, becomes famous by creating a beauty pageant for virgins, while Song Gang, the elder, has one of his breasts surgically enlarged to help sell a line of breast enlargement gels in China's backward countryside.

Many critics here have lashed out at Yu, who has long been considered one of China's most respected novelists, for producing what one critic called a trashy, Hollywood-style portrayal of the country.

But other critics have praised the work as a compelling portrait of an increasingly materialistic, self-indulgent and even unhinged society...

"Brothers," is filled with graphic scenes, from masturbation to murder - not to mention descriptions of Li Guangtou and his father spying on women in the public toilets - and why it was not censored is anybody's guess. Perhaps Yu had become too famous; his previous books had continued to be widely read throughout the '90s. He also writes a popular blog and has lectured in the United States and Europe.

In any case, many within China's literary establishment were scandalized by the books.

China Drafts Law to Boost Unions and End Abuse

China is planning to adopt a new law that seeks to crack down on sweatshops and protect workers' rights by giving labor unions real power for the first time since it introduced market forces in the 1980's….

The move, which underscores the government's growing concern about the widening income gap and threats of social unrest, is setting off a battle with American and other foreign corporations that have lobbied against it by hinting that they may build fewer factories here.

The proposed rules are being considered after the Chinese Communist Party endorsed a new doctrine that will put greater emphasis on tackling the severe side effects of the country's remarkable growth.

Whether the foreign corporations will follow through on their warnings is unclear because of the many advantages of being in China — even with restrictions and higher costs that may stem from the new law. It could go into effect as early as next May.

It would apply to all companies in China, but its emphasis is on foreign-owned companies and the suppliers to those companies.

The conflict with the foreign corporations is significant partly because it comes at a time when labor, energy and land costs are rising in this country, all indications that doing business in China is likely to get much more expensive in the coming years.

But it is not clear how effectively such a new labor law would be carried out through this vast land because local officials have tended to ignore directives from the central government or seek ways around them...

If approved and strictly enforced, specialists say the new laws would strikingly alter the country's vast labor market and significantly push up the wages of everyday workers.

"If you really abide by the Chinese labor laws," said Anita Chan, an expert on labor issues in this country and a visiting fellow at the Australian National University, "migrant-worker wages would go up by 50 percent or more."

Until now, though, existing Chinese labor laws have gone largely unenforced, which has further complicated the debate here. Opponents of the proposed law argue that enforcing existing labor laws would be enough to solve the country's nagging problems. Advocates respond that adopting new laws would set the stage for stricter enforcement.

The Chinese government has put plenty of laws on the books that they don't bother to enforce.

China's Banks Cling to Old Ways

The announcement this week of details of the planned initial public offering of the [Industrial and Commercial Bank of China] — potentially the largest offering in financial history, topping $21 billion — has foreign investors in a frenzied clamor to get a toehold in the booming Chinese financial market. Apparently, Chinese banking, like Chinese manufacturing before it, has arrived.

But according to the work of the economists Anil Kashyap at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Wendy Dobson at the University of Toronto, banks in the new China may look modern on the outside, but they are not so far from their traditional roots. Their behavior seems closer to the 1990's crony capitalism of neighbors like Indonesia and Thailand, which engendered financial panics, than to that of international financial centers like London and New York….

The basic problem, they say, is that the Chinese government owns the banks and will continue to control them after the public offerings. The government has always exercised ultimate authority over the banks' lending decisions and, historically, has forced them to lend to corrupt and inefficient state-owned enterprises. That leaves the banks with a large share of loans that, effectively, default. Despite the recent reforms, that basic interference continues.…

…the government desperately wants to prevent a breakdown of regional stability and an overwhelming mass migration of workers out of rural areas (especially before it stages the Olympics in 2008). One major way it does that is by using bank loans to keep afloat the major employers in those remote areas: state-owned enterprises. Those are the same employers that failed to pay back the previous loans. Lending them money another time will, of course, mean that a large fraction of the bank's loans will again go sour. By that point, though, the bank's initial public offering will be long completed.

Ordinary Chinese angry

Ordinary Chinese angry over N. Korean claim of nuke test

By claiming to test a nuclear device, North Korea has set off a wave of anger among ordinary Chinese, who appear split about whether blame lies with North Korea or the United States.

In the streets and online, Chinese responded to last week's announcement out of Pyongyang with fear.

Many said a nuclear-armed North Korea meant less security for China and East Asia. They called into question China's historic role as North Korea's ally and patron. Others suggested North Korea is right to arm itself in response to U.S. and Japanese threats against it...

For Korean War veteran Zhang Zeshi, North Korea's claim was a bitter betrayal by an "evil" regime. "We have given them so much food, fuel and support, but they don't listen to us," he said.

Zhang, 77, was among more than a million Chinese soldiers sent by Mao Zedong to fight with North Korea in the 1950-53 Korean War. He spent two years in a South Korean POW camp. He was imprisoned again when he returned home, disgraced along with other former POWs for failing to die in battle against American "aggressors."

"We spilled our blood in vain," Zhang said. "It kept alive (North Korea's) feudal dictatorship."..

In China's swelling cyberspace, North Korea has provoked debate. On the forum at beelinkclub.com, based in eastern Shandong province, moderator Xiaocao Qiqiang called the United States and Japan warmongers. He argued that a nuclear North Korea would guarantee peace by forcing the United States and Japan to ease up.

There was no way to verify the identity of the bloggers on beelinkclub.com or other sites where North Korea dominated conversation. But such sentiment was consistent with other postings and online discussions in Chinese chat rooms monitored by Yawei Liu, a China specialist at Georgia Perimeter College.

Liu said much of the debate is colored by a "strong anti-American sentiment among many of the most informed Chinese citizens." Liu said many of those commenting "are sympathetic to North Koreans and see a vast U.S. conspiracy to undermine China."...

The outpouring of anger — against both North Korea and the United States — is no accident, said Shen Dingli, a foreign policy specialist at Shanghai's Fudan University. The Chinese government "has the ability to censor opinion, but it has intentionally allowed public debate to let the both the U.S. and North Korea know we are unhappy," Shen said. "When the criticism is against Chinese foreign policy, the freedom will be less."

A majority of Chinese believe "we should abandon" North Korea, though their view is unlikely to sway decision-makers in Beijing, Shen said. North Korea "may no longer be our friend," he said. But its strategic value to China as a counterweight to U.S. and Japanese interests means "we must never build it into our enemy."

China Charges a Lawyer With Inciting Subversion

The Chinese police have charged a prominent human rights lawyer with inciting subversion, part of a crackdown on people who have sought to use China’s nascent legal system to limit the power of the state.

The lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, was taken into custody in mid-August and was formally arrested Sept. 21, but the police only recently made clear the nature of the charge, said his lawyer, Mo Shaoping.

If Mr. Gao ends up being indicted and tried on subversion charges, it could be one of the highest-profile prosecutions of an internationally recognized dissident in recent years.

China often uses the legal system to punish people it considers subversive. But in recent years it has mainly sought to prosecute them for violating ordinary criminal laws, like leaking state secrets, violating commercial codes, disrupting traffic or committing fraud.

Mr. Gao, 42, represented displaced homeowners, victims of official corruption and religious rights advocates, including members of the Falun Gong sect, which is banned in China.

He has become one of the most outspoken dissidents within China, writing frequent essays and polemics posted on the Internet that have sharply criticized the authorities and have predicted that the governing Communist Party will collapse because of corruption and abuse of power.

Young adult fiction for teenage girls

A young, slightly shy and awkward girl has a crush on the star athlete in her class, a handsome, smart, slightly dangerous young scion of a moneyed family who normally wouldn't give her the time of day. But for some reason she gets plucked out from among her more popular classmates and the two of them live happily ever after, the envy of their peer-group.

A classic Cinderella story [of the kind that appears] on newsstands and bookshelves every month like clockwork. Plotted to make anyone over the age of 17 turn away in disgust, and written using language that will have anyone over the age of 20 reaching for a copy of the Guide to Chinese Netspeak, these novels claim incredible sales, but questions have been raised about authorship, circulation figures, and the free gifts that are included with every purchase.

On the back of China's workers

I find the article linked to above a little unbalanced; anyway the Chinese for "death from over-working" is guòláosǐ 过劳死

China shoots Tibetans

A Romanian videotape that appears to show Chinese security forces shooting two Tibetan refugees in the Himalayas contradicts Beijing's claim that the refugees were shot by soldiers acting in self-defense...

The video, taken at long range, shows a slow-moving, single-file line of Tibetan refugees climbing over a snow- covered mountain pass followed by Chinese troops. A rifle shot is heard, and the first climber in the pack falls to the ground, followed by the climber at the end of the group.

A separate shot shows a uniformed Chinese soldier firing a rifle shot. It then shows several gun-toting soldiers examining the shooting victims and escorting some detainees back to a camp.

Tactics that would not be tolerated in the West

[On the Internet in China], search-engine companies, in an effort to grab a slice of the Internet advertising pie, resort to tactics that would not be tolerated in the West. In particular, Baidu and Yahoo, two of the biggest search firms in China, are accused in lawsuits of routinely using spyware—a type of software that installs itself surreptitiously on users' PCs—as a way to drive users to their sites. Although spyware is not illegal in China, its rampant use has turned Web surfing into a supremely frustrating experience. And because spyware is associated with illegal activities like identity theft in addition to the merely annoying pop-up ads, it may be undermining consumer confidence in the Web. "Complaints are common in China," says Liu Bin, new-media analyst at Beijing-based consultant BDA.

Beijing stamps out poor English

Chinglish has become a running joke among many foreigners in China, and several websites have been set up listing humorous examples of mistranslation.

A road sign on Beijing's Avenue of Eternal Peace warns of a dangerous pavement with the words: "To Take Notice of Safe; The Slippery are Very Crafty".

Menus frequently list items such as "Corrugated iron beef", "Government abuse chicken" and "Chop the strange fish".

Business groups ‘blocking’ HK democracy

The only declared candidate in the race to become Hong Kong’s next chief executive has identified the territory’s conservative business ­community as the primary obstacle to democratic reform and says his long-shot candidacy will “expose the absurdity of [Hong Kong’s electoral] system”.

Letter Of Appeal On The Shutdown Of Century China

On July 19, the Communication Administration Bureau of Beijing issued a "Notice to shut down Century China" (No. 2006-242). It stated that the Web site "illegally provides Internet news without proper qualifications" and "has violated the 'Regulations of Internet News Service' and Article 19 of 'Regulations of Internet Information Service.' Accordingly, Century China Web site and its chat forum Century Salon shall be shut down immediately."

Throughout history oppressive governments worldwide have suppressed freedom of speech, but in today's world, this type of suppression is becoming increasingly intolerable. The shutdown of Century China is just another instance of the Chinese government's suppression of the freedom of its people. Therefore we must stage a focused and unyielding protest against the government's abuse of power.

Since its launch on July 20, 2000, Century China became one of the most influential nongovernmental Web sites in Mainland China. Strictly observing its doctrine to be "free, independent, democratic, tolerant, and rational," it attracted many prominent Chinese intellectuals within China and abroad. The Web site made a unique contribution to promoting China's freedom of speech, political and social liberalization, and served as a communication forum for Chinese people worldwide.

China's Wealthy Splurge $63 Million at Luxury Show in Shanghai

China's wealthiest lavished 500 million yuan ($63 million) on Hennessy X.O spirits, Porsche sedans, South African diamonds and other luxury goods during a show in Shanghai, double the value of transactions a year ago…

"China has embraced every aspect of luxury pursuits, whether it's hunting, gambling, jets or yachting," said Peter Thompson, a partner of yacht broker Cavendish White, whose clients include U.S. tycoon Donald Trump. "There're a lot of rich people and they have a desire to explore new ways of life."..

Shanghai is China's commercial capital and richest city. Saks Inc. plans to open its first luxury store in Shanghai in 2008, to sell fine designer apparel, shoes, jewelry, accessories, handbags, fragrances and cosmetics…

LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, the world's largest luxury goods maker, plans to open two to three stores a year in China, where sales are rising 50 percent annually. Cie. Financier Richemont AG, the world's second-biggest, expects to quadruple sales in China within five years by selling more Cartier jewelry and Piaget watches.

Honda Motor Co. in September started selling luxury Acura brand cars in China to compete with Volkswagen AG's Audi AG, and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG in the world's fastest-growing consumer market.

Yachting is at the top end of the luxury market, said Ivan Liu, China marketing director of Sunseeker International Ltd., a U.K. yacht company that has sold eight yachts in the country worth at least $2 million each…

A growing income disparity between the country's new rich and its poorest rural peasants has created unrest among farmers and workers. Premier Wen Jiabao has said the need to address "social harmony" in the country is a priority.

About 200 million Chinese live on less than $1 a day, according to 2004 World Bank estimates. Mass protests in China increased to more than 87,000 last year from 10,000 in 1994, according to government figures.

China in rural birth control bid

From next year, parents in the countryside will get an annual payment when they reach the age of 60, provided they have only one child, or two girls.

A lack of social security in rural areas has encouraged some families to break China's one-child policy.

China's last people's commune

Here in Zhoujiazhuang, China's last people's commune, all the land and labor is owned by the township. Such obsolete terms as "work points or scores" and "grain rations", used during the planned economy era, are still very much a part of the village life in Zhoujiazhuang.

Other people's communes moved to the household contract responsibility system as early as 24 years ago, where production and management rights were transferred to farmers under long-term contracts. The farmers till the land and keep all profits earned from the sale of their crops, but pay an annual fee or tax to the government.

Figures for the 2005 fiscal year show that the per capita net income of Zhoujiazhuang villagers was 5,018 yuan (US$632), almost 52 percent higher than the national average of 3,255 yuan (US$412).

While the figures might be in favor of Zhoujiazhuang's collective economy, Lei Zongkui, Party secretary of the township, is fully cognizant of the challenges ahead. "We must do everything possible to boost people's incentive to work," Lei said, adding that he still supports the collective economy despite the inherent problems.

China's Commitment to Social Harmony

China's Communist Party, devoted in recent years to expanding the economy at any cost, on Wednesday endorsed a new doctrine that puts more emphasis on tackling the severe side effects of unrestrained growth.

The annual meeting of the ruling party's Central Committee formally adopted President Hu Jintao's proposal to "build a harmonious socialist society," a move some analysts said was one of most decisive shifts in the party's thinking since Deng Xiaoping accelerated the push for high growth rates in the early 1990's.

The leadership declared that a range of social concerns, including the surging wealth gap, corruption, pollution and access to education and medical care, must be placed on a par with economic growth in party theory and government policy…

China needs much higher growth rates than most developed countries to absorb tens of millions of surplus workers, and even the plans for addressing environmental woes and creating a sounder welfare system assume surging tax revenues to pay for them.

…the "harmonious society" theme contains a multitude of political positions that reflect Mr. Hu's agenda as he has consolidated his power.

He has campaigned doggedly to reduce the party's addiction to state-backed investment projects, politically driven expansion of industry and infrastructure and conversion of state-owned land for speculative real estate development. The fear is that many such projects generate poor economic returns and add to China's pollution, already among the worst in the world.

Local officials have tended to ignore central directives on creating a more sustainable and less speculation-driven economy, partly because they still believe that they will not be promoted unless they can show stellar production results in their domains.

Officials have also used their access to state money and loans from state-owned banks to pour investment into projects that benefit themselves or their friends and family members. Vital sectors such as finance, transportation and energy remain closely held by party-appointed officials and the children of the elite.

Hand-in-hand with the "harmonious society" drive, Mr. Hu and Zeng Qinghong, the vice president and the leader of the party's secretariat, have undertaken the most sustained crackdown on official corruption since the party first embraced market-oriented economic measures nearly three decades ago…

But party officials acknowledge that corruption is endemic in the one-party system. The mass accumulation of wealth by people who have political power has helped transform China from one of the most egalitarian societies in the world to one of the most unequal, with a yawning urban-rural wealth gap.

Because many people believe that wealth flows from access to power more than it does from talent or risk-taking, the wealth gap has incited outrage and is viewed as at least partly responsible for tens of thousands of mass protests around the country in recent years.

…analysts say the new platform should result in significant increases in government spending on education and health care, which tend to be expensive and inaccessible to peasants, migrant workers and retirees, who make up the overwhelming majority of China's population.

Energy efficiency and pollution controls have also become a greater policy focus, though experts say there are still few signs that party leaders have the resolve to fight pollution at the expense of growth.

We'll see. I'm especially dubious about their eliminating corruption.

China sees itself becoming as influential as US

The Chinese see their country matching the US in terms of global influence within the next 10 years, while a majority of Americans, Chinese and Indians see the US losing its status as the world’s unrivalled superpower within the next half century, according to an international poll released on Wednesday...

Most strikingly, the poll – carried out in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and the US in June and July – revealed a sense of confidence among Chinese and Indians in their countries’ destinies.

Analysts called it a landmark and complex study. While there was an acute feeling of distrust between nations, especially towards the US and the rise in Chinese military power, there was also a prevailing sense that a decline in US economic and military power in Asia would have a negative impact.

However, only 35 per cent of Chinese and 39 per cent of Indians said they trusted the US to act responsibly in the world.

Large majorities in India and China said they believed a conflict over energy resources was likely in Asia. Majorities also said countries had a right to go to war to ensure adequate energy supplies.

These themes were reflected in the top foreign policy goals set by the Chinese – protecting jobs for Chinese, promoting economic growth and securing energy supplies. Combating international terrorism came fourth.

Ranking what they saw as critical threats to their interests, the Chinese first listed Aids, avian flu and other potential epidemics followed by disruption in energy supplies and global warming. Instability or conflict on the Korean peninsula was ranked ninth...

Chinese see their country catching up with the US in terms of global influence within 10 years. Indians, whom panellists said seemed to have a greater sense of exuberance, placed their country second behind the US in global influence at present.

Some 55 per cent of Americans believed the US would be surpassed or equalled as a global power over the next 50 years. This view was shared by 68 per cent of South Koreans, 53 per cent of Indians and 60 per cent of Chinese. Only 29 per cent of Americans said the US should work actively to limit the growth of China’s power.

China Says It Will Back Sanctions On N. Korea

China on Tuesday expressed a rare willingness to support U.N. sanctions against its ally North Korea, but it said any punitive action would have to be narrowly targeted at the country's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs...

China's tougher stance against North Korea came as officials in Beijing faced criticism at home over their diplomatic strategy, which relies primarily on the now-stalled six-nation talks to contain North Korea's nuclear program.

The talks have been "a total failure," said Zhang Liankui, a professor at the influential Central Party School's Institute for International Strategic Studies. "North Korea's reaction is a challenge to the whole world. Every country should have a clear and definite attitude, including China.

"If peaceful means can't stop North Korea from conducting a nuclear test, then there should be other means," Zhang added. "The appeasement policy was very popular in the international community, and I think that's very dangerous. Within 10 years, people will suffer from this attitude."

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao acknowledged that North Korea's action "will undoubtedly exert negative impact" on the two countries' relations. But he said the six-party talks remain "the best and practical way and effective way to resolve this issue, so I don't think it's a failure of China's diplomacy."

Still, Wang Guangya, China's U.N. ambassador, conceded that the council would have to impose "some punitive actions" on Pyongyang to persuade it to heed international demands. He added, however, that "these actions have to be appropriate" and "more specifically targeted toward the nuclear- and missile-related areas."

U.S. officials welcomed China's willingness to consider punishing a traditional ally and a neighbor that it has shielded from international pressure for decades. White House spokesman Tony Snow said China's announcement suggested that North Korea's ability to use "bluff and bravado" to obtain concessions may have ended...

China opposes any deadlines or trade restrictions that would undercut North Korea's struggling economy.

It also insists that any resolution must exclude the possibility, however remote, that force could be used against North Korea. China proposed that a sanctions resolution refer simply to a provision in Chapter 7, known as Article 41, that would authorize only the imposition of sanctions...

China Unblocks Wikipedia

The online interactive reference site Wikipedia announced Tuesday that the site had apparently been made accessible in China, after being blocked for just over a year by the country's government....

The most recent blocking was the third such outage reported by Wikipedia.

"We'll see how long this lasts," said the company on its site. "Chinese Wikipedians have expressed fears about the detrimental effects that a permanent ban would have. First of all, the block deprives a useful resource from the majority of Chinese speakers in the world. Moreover, since Mainland Chinese form a significant portion of the Chinese Wikipedia community (46% of all users in March 2005), a long-term block could severely stunt the growth of Wikipedia similar to the block in June 2004."

We'll see how long this lasts, indeed.

Putting animal protection in the dictionary

...we are not saying that animals cannot be eaten, only that the dictionary has too many definitions reading "flesh is edible" or "flesh is delicious." For some animals, this is even the only definition, giving the reader an impression that the animals are born for eating, and ignoring the position and value in the environment.

But the Chinese seem to feel the same way about plants. What humans eat is important.

Lack of creative thinking

The Economist Magazine had recently carried out a study among 180 Chinese companies to ask them "what is the key weakness of your employees". The most common answer the Economist had received was "lack of creative thinking."

A shift to the left?

New details have emerged in Shanghai of the Communist party's most significant purge of the past decade in an unfolding power struggle over the future of the Chinese economy.

The political upheaval deepened this weekend with a round-up of businessmen and lower-ranking officials by secret police and every Shanghai official above the rank of office director has had to surrender his passport.

It is Communist China's first purge in the internet age, allowing Chinese analysts an opportunity to examine how the party has used both cyber-propaganda and old-fashioned repression against its victims.

They have vanished into a labyrinth of well-guarded villas where they are being questioned by party interrogators under draconian internal disciplinary procedures that give the accused no legal rights.

The purge is seen as a decisive move by President Hu Jintao to cement his authority and to satisfy demands from the left to restrain China's freewheeling brand of capitalism.

Local journalists who have followed the dramatic events of the past week say the president's men updated their traditional methods by orchestrating an online campaign against the Shanghai party chief, Chen Liangyu.

It began last Monday, when the state news agency, Xinhua, revealed that Chen had been sacked for alleged corruption over a scandal in which at least £215m, a gigantic sum by Chinese standards, had been either unwisely invested or misappropriated from the city's pension fund.

Upon news of Chen's downfall, the party's cyber-tacticians sprang into action as more than 300,000 readers logged on to the Xinhua website within half an hour to read the charges. On cue, thousands of internet users were encouraged to write comments applauding the government for acting against corruption.

Chatroom censors blocked anything sceptical. Internet users suspected that state security agents were planting well-timed messages to steer the chat in the correct direction. They did not neglect the Shanghai city website, from which all portraits and speeches by Chen, who studied at Birmingham University for a few months in 1992, vanished at the click of a mouse.

At the same time, the party's well-worn techniques of detention and denunciation were brought into play. Plainclothes agents, accompanied by officers from the Public Security Bureau wearing olive green uniforms, ushered those under suspicion from their grandiose offices into black limousines that sped them to secure locations around the city...

To some analysts, this dramatic return to the days of detentions and purges is merely a powerplay by Hu ahead of a central committee meeting next month and a big party congress next year. To others it means the president has struck an alliance with the old guard, whose doctrines of state control have been reasserted in a stream of recent edicts.

If that is the case, then the purge in Shanghai heralds a fundamental shift back to the left in China.

Sure, see the Great Wall. But don't miss the great mall

China International Trade City is the largest wholesale "small goods" market on the planet, and the consensus starting point for anyone hoping to take advantage of the famed "China price" on display at the market's 19,000 booths. Once famous for being the place where half the world's socks are made, Yiwu now bears a new distinction: China's latest national tourist attraction.

In January, this market earned a AAAA rating from the China National Tourism Administration - a distinction that ranks it alongside the Great Wall, the Terra Cotta Warriors, and the Forbidden City. The Yiwu market is the first shopping destination to be given that honor.

The market may merit its new status on size alone. Four stories high and covering 10 million square feet, it is the equivalent of 175 football fields, 74 average-sized Costcos, or two-and-a-half Malls of America, all stacked to the rafters. No space is wasted on ice rinks, food courts, or other unnecessary distractions.

China is in some ways a fragile economy

For all its rapid strides, China is in some ways a fragile economy. That, trade experts say, is a danger not just to leaders in Beijing but to the world economy.

"If reform stalls, the Chinese economy will stall, and that is in nobody's interest," says Daniel Griswold, an economist at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington. Paulson "understands that our interest is in a thriving, liberalizing China."

China has committed itself down the road to an increasingly market-based economy. Its surging output of electronics and other goods has been stunning - and unsettling to rival manufacturers in other nations.

But this doesn't mean China's path of progress will necessarily remain smooth. Among the challenges: an outdated financial system heavy on bad loans, state-owned businesses in distress, a volatile social rift between prosperous urbanites and the rural poor, and the looming burden of a rising elderly population.

[The stated goals of [Henry Paulson, America's new Treasury secretary] for the US-China economic relationship have much in common with those of his predecessor, John Snow. Both put the issue of a more flexible Chinese currency high on their list - a move that could bolster the exports of struggling US manufacturers.

But Paulson's tone appears at once softer and more ambitious. He is not simply calling for change from Beijing officials. He expects to work with them regularly, building on the ties he established there in his career as a globe-trotting investment banker...

All this reflects a tempered approach to China at a time when critics continue to press the Bush administration for punitive measures if China is not responsive.

"Time is running out. I hope that Hank returns with tangible results," Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York said in a statement last week. He and Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina say they may have "no choice" but to call for a vote on their proposal that China face a 27.5 percent tariff in the US if Beijing fails to act on the currency issue...

Many economists, however, caution that a trade war could harm both nations and the world economy. Their arguments include:

• The US and China, currently the twin engines of global growth, have become increasingly interdependent. Supporting gradual reforms, and a healthy Chinese economy, is more important than winning concessions.
• China's increasing clout makes it likely that its leaders will continue to make decisions based on perceptions of their own interests, not outside pressure.
• Even if the yuan were to rise sharply against the dollar, it is unclear how much impact that would have on the mammoth US trade deficit. America might simply import more from other nations, or pay more for imports from China.

Moreover, a large revaluation of the yuan might destabilize China.

"If they did it suddenly, their financial system might not be able to withstand the adversity," says Michael Cosgrove, an economist in Dallas who publishes the Econoclast newsletter.

Hu Jintao's Ideology

The Communist Party's traditional values of egalitarianism and service to the poor have largely faded away...in favor of a get-rich ideology that blurs the distinction between officials and entrepreneurs. The strait-laced morals of Mao Zedong's time, they note, have relaxed to the point that bribes are part of doing business and prostitution is practiced openly. In addition, the party's reputation for corrupt land seizures has contributed heavily to often violent peasant unrest, making the need to re-burnish the government's legitimacy more urgent...

In a speech last year to cadres training at the Central Party School, [President Hu Jintao] suggested that the solution lies in renewing traditional Marxist thought, revisiting the best of Mao Zedong's policies and reviving ancient Chinese culture, including Confucianism. Of the three, [Kang Xiaoguang, a social sciences researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science] said, Hu looks to Chinese culture as the most likely to provide moral values.

So when he sat down with a group of delegates to the National People's Congress on March 4, Hu harked back to a long Chinese tradition that stipulates leaders are supposed to urge moral conduct on their followers. "Love the motherland, do not harm it," he said. "Be disciplined and law-abiding, not chaotic and lawless."

In all, he recited eight such rules, which he called "the eight glories and the eight shames." The official New China News Agency called them "a perfect amalgamation of traditional Chinese values and modern virtues." The People's Political Consultative Conference, the other house in China's bicameral legislature, passed a resolution saying, "Let it be a paragon and common practice of the times."

The official People's Daily newspaper quickly filled with statements from Communist Party cadres describing Hu's ideas as marvelous and saying they were starting programs to teach the eight do's and don'ts through schools, workplace meetings and popular performances.
...

But Huang Weiting, deputy editor of the party's Seeking Truth magazine, said party officials should be looking at themselves as well. "It's a cadre problem," he said in an interview.

"Eight glories and eight shames are not only a requirement for youth, but also for every citizen," he wrote this week in the party's Discipline Inspection newspaper. "Especially party members and cadres should take the lead."

Despite the noise generated by party propaganda organs, some Chinese questioned whether Hu's preaching would ever reach officials in the small towns and villages where disenchantment with the party is strongest. "It won't even get to provincial capitals," said Kang, the social scientist.

Even in Beijing, a group of recent graduates from prestigious Peking University, all of whom work in government-connected jobs, said they had not heard of the eight aphorisms after more than a week of the campaign. And in Inner Mongolia's distant Tongliao City, Bai Lianhua, a 46-year-old homemaker, said in a telephone conversation that she had no idea what they were.

I'd call 八荣八耻 bā róng bā chǐ "the eight ways to glorify the motherland, and the eight ways to shame the motherland," but no doubt it will be called the "eight honors and eight disgraces".

Here's the original Chinese, along with the Washingon Post translation:

以热爱祖国为荣、以危害祖国为耻
yǐ rèài zǔguó wèi róng 、yǐ wēihài zǔguó wèi chǐ
Love the motherland, do not harm it.
以服务人民为荣、以背离人民为耻
yǐ fúwù rénmín wèi róng 、yǐ bèilí rénmín wèi chǐ
Serve, don't disserve the people.
以崇尚科学为荣、以愚昧无知为耻
yǐ chóng shàng kēxué wèi róng 、yǐ yúmèi wúzhī wèi chǐ
Uphold science, don't be ignorant and unenlightened.
以辛勤劳动为荣、以好逸恶劳为耻
yǐ xīnqín láodòng wèi róng 、yǐ hàoyìwùláo wèi chǐ
Work hard, don't be lazy.
以团结互助为荣、以损人利己为耻
yǐ tuánjié hùzhù wèi róng 、yǐ sǔnrénlìjǐ wèi chǐ
Be united and help each other, don't benefit at the expense of others.
以诚实守信为荣、以见利忘义为耻
yǐ chéngshí shǒu xìn wèi róng 、yǐ jiànlìwàngyì wèi chǐ
Be honest, not profit-mongering.
以遵纪守法为荣、以违法乱纪为耻
yǐ zūn jì shǒufǎ wèi róng 、yǐ wéifǎluànjì wèi chǐ
Be disciplined and law-abiding, not chaotic and lawless.
以艰苦奋斗为荣、以骄奢淫逸为耻
yǐ jiānkù fèndòu wèi róng 、yǐ jiāoshēyínyì wèi chǐ
Know plain living and hard struggle, do not wallow in luxuries.

China is Number 2

China was ranked second on Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index, a survey on the propensity of companies from 30 leading exporting countries to bribe abroad. According to the index, companies from India, China, and Russia pay most briberies.

Chinese Marxism is not dead

Dr John Hanafin, a specialist in Chinese philosophy at the University of Melbourne's Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, agrees that "to say communism is dead in China is not true at all". It is important for policymaking to "challenge this dominant myth among academics and politicians".

Hanafin has surveyed philosophy postgraduates at 22 Chinese universities, finding Marxism continues to dominate. In 2000, the number of doctorates in Marxist philosophy was nearly twice that of Chinese philosophy, and four times that of Western philosophy. These figures have been consistent since the 1980s and are "rather startling considering our assumptions that Marxism is passe in China", Hanafin says. "There has neither been a return to China's [classical] past nor a wholesale adoption of Western philosophy."

Hanafin, who has served on the board of the official Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and has addressed the Central Party School in Beijing, says he recently asked young girls at a dancing academy in Beijing about Marxist theory. "They knew it all. I was amazed," he says...

Hanafin says that while there has been no change in the extent of compulsory Marxist studies in high school and university, the type of Marxism being promoted has changed. No longer Maoism, it embraces the rapid economic development taking place. And unique to modern China, it is a Marxism that elevates the type of yuppie who drinks single-malt scotch, collects art, drives a Mercedes and wears fine clothes - once reviled as bourgeois - to a "gao sushi", or high-quality person...

"They have redefined Marxism," Hanafin says. "In the late 1970s when I went to Guangzhou there were piles of dirty dishes everywhere because no one would work. They said, 'I'm not going to do that - we are all equal.' That was Mao's fault. Deng Xiaoping said it was wrong, and we have to develop the market economy, but keep the goal in mind."

Rather than seeing modern China as a contradiction, he says the current court philosophers liken the nation's "sweat factories and satanic mills" to Europe's Industrial Revolution. "China has said we have to go through this … and then socialism will evolve."

The iron rice bowl that provided every person with cradle-to-grave welfare under Mao was smashed because it was not sustainable, but "the goal for the future is to bring all those back when China can afford it".

But at the same time, Chinese society is experiencing a widening income and lifestyle gulf, between rural and urban residents, rich and poor, those with a city "hukou" - a residence card that gives access to education and health care, and those adrift and homeless.

And as for the return of the reviled bourgeoisie and the downtrodden proletariat? Too explosive. Hanafin says the Government prefers to explain the difference in cultural, rather than economic, terms. "The same person who in 1961 had fine wine, nice clothes and was bourgeois is now called high quality. It's a new, positive term," he says. The "di sushi", or low quality person, is negative and lacks initiative.

The biggest question is how successful this balancing act of economic growth and Marxist philosophical code will be in the long run. "You can't predict these things," Hanafin says. "Anything could happen. The whole society could collapse."

He says some economists predict that if growth slips below 7 per cent, the Government will face grave trouble from internal unrest. The Public Security Ministry says there were 87,000 "public order disturbances" last year, up 6.6 per cent. Village riots stem from disaffection over pollution and corruption or when homes are razed for development without proper compensation. The Chinese blog danwei.org notes the same textbook that created headlines for relegating Mao caused a stir among teachers for removing references to peasant uprisings through history...

Ken deWoskin, of the University of Michigan and a full-time China consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers, [says], "There is still a very strong interest in the state owning and controlling and deriving benefit from the largest companies - oil, gas, telecommunications. These are traditionally Stalinist, state-owned infrastructure industries that the state would like to monetise but continue to own and control."

The West often misunderstands the Government's move to corporatise - not privatise - its major companies, he says. As the WTO clears hurdles for companies entering China, he says that in many areas substitute barriers have been built to protect state interests...

The close involvement of the Government with business can also create problems for Chinese companies as they seek to expand overseas. DeWoskin says recent attempts by Chinese enterprises to acquire oil and gas companies in Canada, the United States and South Korea have fallen over when the Chinese Government sought to change the terms of the deals - and even the acquiring company - or when the chief executive acted unilaterally.

"They recognise that a socialist economy didn't work for them … that is what the whole corporatisation process is about, but it is a troubled concept," deWoskin says. "Companies are either/or. They are governed by stockholders and boards of directors, or by agencies of the state … One of the reasons it is so difficult for China to achieve reform objectives is that they can't sort out this issue of who is in control."..

Rising professionalism among Chinese journalists studying abroad, and the impact of the freewheeling internet, is prising open "a little more space" for media. But Chinese journalists continue to be sent to Marxist study sessions which can be "insidious and bizarre" as they focus on passages that describe the media as a weapon to hold high the flag of the party. "Every day they receive [party] directives. They have learnt to deal with this obstacle course very skilfully," [David Bandurski of Hong Kong University's China Media Project] says...

The final of Super Girls, China's answer to Australian Idol, drew 400 million viewers. But the phenomenon was labelled "poison for the youth" by a party stalwart. A strange compromise was reached. "The Super Girls sang this song about the Eight Honours and Eight Disgraces, which fits into a cultural cleansing campaign," Bandurski says. Hu's moral code for living urges the young to live plainly and not wallow in luxuries or pleasures.

Bandurski says the incident smacks of a communist ideological campaign. The push to revive Marxist values in the cultural sphere is seen by some commentators as an attempt to appease the party's old guard, which is railing against the social effects of economic reform. Even Communist Labour Day has become a week-long orgy of shopping and tourism.

So Lei Feng the Model Soldier, a 1960s children's hero whose father was killed by the Japanese and who went on to selflessly do good deeds for others, has recently donned a leather jacket to appear on websites and a Learn from Lei Feng computer game that rewards players who fight secret agents with Mao's autograph. Prime-time television has been cleansed of foreign cartoons that spread "Western influence", weird hairdos, cops and robber shows and even divorce themes in soapies.

The challenge that China fears

Those who are concerned about the Chinese democracy movement should pay close attention to ongoing events in Taiwan, especially the popular anticorruption campaign that has emerged there in recent weeks.

The very existence of Taiwan's political and economic openness offers a sharp challenge to China's leadership. The worry is that its own public may look at Taiwan's path to democracy as a model for China itself, which could lead to the end of Communist Party rule.

The recent anticorruption movement in Taiwan is a perfect example of the challenge that China fears. The purpose of this citizen movement is to protect Taiwan's hard-won democracy by holding political leaders accountable for their conduct.

A Slap in the Face

China's punctilious Foreign Ministry reserves the word "hanran" 悍然, which translates as brazen or flagrant, for serious affronts to China's national dignity by countries that have historically been rivals or enemies.

When Japan's recently retired prime minister visited the Yasukuni Shrine, which China condemns as honoring Japan's World War II-era militarism, he was described as "brazen." When the United States bombed China's embassy in Belgrade in 1999, Beijing called that act "flagrant." North Korea, a longstanding ideological ally, has had increasingly testy relations with China in recent years. But it was not until Monday, moments after it said it had exploded a nuclear device, that it was accused of a "brazen" violation of its international commitments.

Wordplay is just one indication that the test crossed a not-so-informal red line for China, which has devoted years of painstaking diplomatic effort, and staked its sensitive relationship with Washington, on the promise that it could deliver a peaceful, negotiated solution to the nuclear standoff.

That policy, Chinese analysts say, has failed, and the test leaves Beijing little choice but to take a tougher approach toward its neighbor. But Chinese leaders still see the most punitive sanctions as unpalatable and counterproductive, and the country's elite remains sharply divided over how far to distance itself from Pyongyang and how closely to embrace the Bush administration, several senior Chinese foreign policy experts said...

While China has begun to think like a big power in some respects, its foremost strategic priority has been reclaiming Taiwan, or at least preventing the island from becoming formally independent of mainland China.

Conflict in North Korea or a toppling of Kim Jong Il's regime could upset both of those goals, Chinese analysts say. A war is viewed as the worst outcome, potentially creating a massive wave of refugees into China and even risking a broader engagement that could threaten what has been an extended period of harmony in Northeast Asia.

But peaceful change in North Korea could conceivably bring a new pro- American government to China's northeastern border, even as Beijing faces continuing uncertainty over how to handle the pro-American government in Taiwan, off its southeastern coast.

"China must continue to look at North Korea through the prism of Taiwan," Shen said. "You cannot expect China to completely abandon its ally while America continues to back Taiwan and allow the independence movement to thrive there." Equally, however, China cannot afford to alienate the United States, analysts say. It has also recently taken steps to repair its frayed relationship with Japan. Those ties may well depend on moving to punish North Korea for the nuclear test and at least experimenting to see if firm pressure on Pyongyang brings it back to the bargaining table.

China provides by some estimates 70 percent of Pyongyang's fuel and food needs, and could almost certainly create severe economic hardship there by slowing shipments across its long, barren border...

Zhang Liangui, an expert on North Korea at the Central Party School, a party-run think tank in Beijing....said the test amounted to a slap in the face for China. Even if the goal remains a negotiated solution, he said, Beijing must first show that it is prepared to take a much tougher line before Pyongyang will bargain in earnest.

And also this:

North Korea's apparently successful nuclear test has sent shock waves through international capitals and promises to alter the security landscape of North Asia in alarming ways. But it creates an especially difficult diplomatic challenge to China and Chinese leader Hu Jintao.

Long seen as Pyongyang's most important ally and the only country with enough leverage to influence Kim Jong Il's behavior, the Chinese President had engaged in an extraordinary flurry of diplomacy since Pyongyang announced its intention to go nuclear a week ago. On Sunday Beijing took the unusual step of hosting Japan's new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, on an official visit to Beijing. Hu met Abe for a top-level summit that thawed a half-decade of chilly Sino-Japanese relations. And the rapprochement took place amidst surprisingly positive atmospherics, with both Chinese and Japanese officials heralding a turning point for the better in their ties. Clearly, the urgency of the North Korean threat had been a catalyst for the summit's remarkably positive tone. A Japanese official traveling with Abe called it the first step in a new personal relationship of trust.

Abe said both sides agreed that a North Korea nuclear test would not be tolerated, and a joint statement called such a development unacceptable—the toughest public language to date that China has used to try to keep the lid on Kim's nuclear ambitions.

Chinese authorities reckoned—or at least hoped—that this unprecedented departure from Beijing's earlier reluctance to censure Pyongyang publicly would deter the North Korean leader from following through on his threat to conduct a nuclear test. In a Beijing press conference late Sunday evening, Abe had stated that North Korea was certainly watching the [Sino-Japanese] summit closely, and we have sent a very strong message.

But obviously not strong enough. When the date of the summit—Oct. 8—passed without Pyongyang conducting a test, some analysts began to speculate that the united front presented by Tokyo and Beijing had deterred Kim from following through on his threats. Beforehand, regional analysts had expected an Oct. 8 test because that day was the anniversary of Kim's ascension to head the ruling Worker's party in Pyongyang in 1997.

But such speculation that Kim was staying his hand turned out to be grimly premature. Hu has another reason to be furious with Kim. Sunday was also the opening day of a key four-day Chinese communist party plenum in Beijing, during which Hu was slated to begin the political maneuvering required to reshuffle personnel and orchestrate his own succession. Now that important party conference is in shambles, upstaged by Kim's nuclear test.

The big question now is whether Hu will decide to reverse China's longstanding opposition to the use of economic sanctions against Pyongyang. Beijing provides more than 70 percent of North Korea's fuel supplies and a third of its food imports—but has been extremely reluctant to pull the plug on this pipeline for fear of destabilizing the Pyongyang regime. For several days in March 2003, Beijing stopped fuel supplies to North Korea in a bid to influence Pyongyang to join the Beijing-sponsored six-party talks (among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the U.S.). But Beijing never publicly owned up to the shut-off and its diplomats later tried to explain it as the unintended consequences of a mechanical breakdown.

Now, China's policy of sticking to diplomatic tactics—such as the unusual Hu-Abe summit Sunday—has proved to be too little, too late...

Beijing's biggest fear is that jitters over North Korea's nukes might trigger a spiraling nuclear arms race in North Asia, with Tokyo, Seoul and even Taiwan tempted by the prospect of developing nuclear weapons in self defense. Clearly, North Korea is betting that the global anti-proliferation regimes are in such tatters that Pyongyang will be allowed to follow in the footsteps of India and Pakistan, which have weathered the international brouhaha after their own nuclear tests in the late 90's and are now both U.S. allies. Now it's up to China—and the rest of the world—to prove Kim wrong.

Popular resentment against the Chinese

China's hunger for raw materials and energy is driving new investment across Africa, with trade between China and the continent up more than 300% since 2000 to more than $40 billion a year. China is the main market for Sudan's oil. It has invested in Nigerian oil, provided oil-rich Angola with a $2-billion loan with easy terms and improved relations with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean regime, which is criticized by economists and human rights activists.

Critics say Chinese environmental and labor standards are often poor. In Ghana, environmentalists have accused Chinese oil company Sinopec of desecrating a national park.

In Zambia, there is a growing backlash over low wages and poor conditions in Chinese operations.

At the NFC Africa copper mine in Chambishi, a Chinese-owned operation in northeastern Zambia, hundreds of workers rioted in late July over reports that the management was reneging on a pay increase. Four were shot and wounded by Chinese employees of the company. Another was shot by police.

Chinese internal migrants

"I miss the clean air in the village," she says.

"But we're much wealthier here than we would be back home."

China is going to get old before it gets rich

Despite its dizzying growth, China is going to get old before it gets rich. "China has both a pension problem and a demographic problem," says Michael Pettis, a finance professor at Peking University. Existing pension systems are inadequate and cover only 13% of the population; with the number of Chinese over 60 expected to soar from nearly 140 million now to 250 million by 2020, the financial burden is only worsening. In that context, the allegations against Chen "are very serious if they are true," says a former economic-planning official. "[Pension reform] is one of the most important things the government is trying to do."

But Chen's arrest, while signaling that the skimming of pensions won't be tolerated, hasn't necessarily reassured those most likely to depend on them. Yuncheng, 70, a retired Shanghai municipal official, regards Chen's alleged actions as a sign that the Communist Party has lost its way. He fumes: "They are more corrupt than the Kuomintang."

The Communist Party is more corrupt than the Kuomintang!?

Does China really mind North Korea's Nukes?

A nuclear North Korea would...be useful to China in its Taiwan policy. To be sure, a nuclear test would cause Beijing, as broker of recent multiparty negotiations to end the nuclear standoff, to lose considerable diplomatic face. But North Korea also serves to neutralize the presence of American troops in South Korea, and a nuclear North Korea would accomplish this even better. "The main task now is 'opposing Taiwan independence'," [Shen Dingli, a political scientist at Shanghai’s Fudan University and one of China’s best known arms-control experts] writes. "In this respect, the DPRK at least puts in check the tens of thousands of US troops in South Korea and … helps China divide the military threat of the US military forces in the Asia-Pacific region."

That viewpoint echoes a historical perspective widely held by Chinese intellectuals—that the 1950-52 Korean War, which brought China and the United States into bloody combat, scuttled Chairman Mao's impending invasion of Taiwan. Preventing unity on the Korean Peninsula underscores China's persistent efforts to prop up North Korea economically, a practice Shen doesn't expect will cease even after a nuclear test north of the 38th parallel. "Our country only needs to symbolically take part in the sanctions that the international community will surely impose on the DPRK," he says.

Dead Bachelors in Remote China Still Find Wives

For many Chinese, an ancestor is someone to honor, but also someone whose needs must be maintained. Families burn offerings of fake money or paper models of luxury cars in case an ancestor might need pocket change or a stylish ride in the netherworld.

But here in the parched canyons along the Yellow River known as the Loess Plateau, some parents with dead bachelor sons will go a step further. To ensure a son's contentment in the afterlife, some grieving parents will search for a dead woman to be his bride and, once a corpse is obtained, bury the pair together as a married couple...

The rural folk custom, startling to Western sensibilities, is known as minghun, or afterlife marriage. Scholars who have studied it say it is rooted in the Chinese form of ancestor worship, which holds that people continue to exist after death and that the living are obligated to tend to their wants — or risk the consequences. Traditional Chinese beliefs also hold that an unmarried life is incomplete, which is why some parents worry that an unmarried dead son may be an unhappy one.

In random interviews in different villages across the Loess Plateau, which spreads across parts of Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces, everyone acknowledged the custom. People say parents of a dead son depend on an informal network of friends or family, or even a well-connected fixer, to locate a family that has recently lost a single daughter. Selling or buying corpses for commercial purposes is illegal in China, but these individual transactions, usually for cash, seem to fall into a fuzzier category and are quietly arranged between families.

In some villages, a son is eligible for such a spouse if he is 12 or older when he dies. None of the people interviewed considered the custom shameful or overly macabre. Instead, it was described as a parental duty to a lost child that reflected Confucian values about loyalty to family.

"Parents have a sense of responsibility for their son," said one woman, Li Yinlan. She said she had attended ceremonies where the coffins were placed side by side and musicians played a dirge. "They have this custom everywhere," she said of her region.

The Communist Party has tried, with mixed success, to stamp out beliefs it considers to be superstition. But the continued practice of the ancient custom in the Loess Plateau is a testament to the region's extreme isolation. In other parts of rural China, it is difficult to know how often, if at all, the custom is followed.
The Loess Plateau, a dense warren of eroding canyons where some villages are unreachable by roads, is separated from much of the change stirring up China. Many young people have fled the arid hills, while those left behind struggle to raise a crop. Many of the men left behind also struggle to find a wife.

The reason is that many women have left for work in cities, never to return, while those women who remain can afford to be picky. No family would approve of a daughter marrying a man too poor to afford a dowry and a decent future. Families of the poorest bachelor sons sometimes pool their savings to buy a wife from bride sellers, the traveling brokers who lure, trick or sometimes kidnap women from other regions and then illegally sell them into marriage...

[A farmer named Chen Xingwu, 57] said his own marriage, at 35, was a lucky stroke, coming after he lobbied the family of a younger woman in another village. It allowed him to have three children and carry on his family name. But he said the pool of available brides was limited, a scarcity that increased their value — an irony, given that some rural families, conscious of China's one-child policy, abort female fetuses before birth or abandon newborn girls.

"For girls, it doesn't matter about their minds, whether they are an idiot or not," he said. "They are still wanted as brides." Dead or alive, he added, as he peered at the river.

"There are girls who have drowned in the river down there," he said. "When their bodies have washed up, their families could get a couple of thousand yuan for them."

Villagers and Mr. Yang, the funeral director, said a family searching for a female corpse typically must pay more than 10,000 yuan, or about $1,200, almost four years of income for an average farmer. Families of the bride regard the money as the dowry they would have received had death not intervened.

The existence of such a market for brides has led to scattered reports of grave robbing. This year, a man in Shaanxi Province captured two men trying to dig up the body of his wife, according to a local news account. In February, a woman from Yangquan tried to buy the remains of a dead 15-year-old girl, abandoned at a hospital in another city, to satisfy her unmarried deceased brother. She said the brother's ghost was invading her dreams and demanding a wife, according to a news account.

Guo Yuhua, a sociology professor at Qinghua University in Beijing, an expert on folk traditions and burial customs in the Loess Plateau, said the minghun custom stemmed from both dread and sympathy for the dead. She said parents with dead daughters, like those with dead sons, were also carrying out an obligation to their child. They will sell their bodies as a way of finding them a place in a Chinese society where tradition dictates that a daughter has no place on her father's family tree.

"China is a paternal clan culture," said Professor Guo, who did postdoctoral work in anthropology at Harvard. "A woman does not belong to her parents. She must marry and have children of her own before she has a place among her husband's lineage. A woman who dies unmarried has no place in this world."

...families too poor to afford a minghun bride also follow a similar custom in some villages: They make a figure of straw and bury it beside a dead son as the spouse he never had.

A school shooting

The Chinese media love to highlight stories that illustrate how violent U.S. society is. Latest case in point: The Amish school shootings in Pennsylvania are all over the newspapers here.

But get this: There was a school shooting in China, and it’s nowhere to be seen in the press. To find it, you have to go here, a website blocked in the Middle Kingdom.

Another Lawyer Arrested

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have formally arrested top civil rights lawyer Guo Feixiong, and a fellow activist says his former colleague and boss Gao Zhisheng has also been formally arrested...

Fellow activists said the news had struck a body blow to China’s fledgling civil rights movement, which focuses on using legal channels to defend individual rights against violation by government officials...

China is running out of water

Some economic booms grind to a halt, others run out of steam, but in China the biggest risk is that growth will dry up. Water, the country's scarcest resource, is running out. Pollution, waste and over-exploitation have combined with the expansion of mega-cities to foul up wells and suck rivers dry.

Signs of a crisis are apparent everywhere. In the arid north, four-fifths of the wetlands along the region's biggest river system have dried up. In the west, desert sands are encroaching on many cities. In the south, the worst drought in 50 years has ruined crops and prompted water shortages even along the banks of the Yangtze, the nation's biggest waterway...

Water has always been China's Achilles heel. The world's most populous country has per capita water resources of 2,200 cubic metres - less than a quarter of the world average. The shortfall between supply and demand is estimated at 6bn cubic metres. The gap is likely to widen as the population grows from 1.3 billion people to an estimated 1.6 billion by 2030...

In short, China's development model is unsustainable. For the past 30 years the government has emphasised the quantity rather than the quality of growth. Spectacular expansion figures of almost 10% a year mask dire inefficiency and environmental damage.

For most of the past 30 years, financial resources have been invested in new factories rather than treatment plants, water recycling facilities or replacements for leaky pipes. Only 52% of the country's 2bn cubic metres of sewage is treated before it goes into rivers and lakes. This has expensive health implications. Each year, filthy water is a big factor in the 800m cases of diarrhoea, 650,000 cases of dysentery and 500m cases of intestinal worms.

Industrial pollution creates political as well as physical concerns. Suspicions are rife that factory owners collaborate with government officials to cover up toxic spills in the interests of social stability and economic growth...

There are signs that the government is taking these warnings more seriously. President Hu Jintao - who has a post-graduate degree in water conservancy engineering - has made sustainable development one of the goals of his administration. Last month, the government promised to spend a trillion yuan (£67bn) over the next five years on waste treatment and water recycling. In Beijing and other cities, water charges have been increased to encourage more efficient use of supplies.

Yet the prevailing ethos is that the problems of growth and science can be solved by more growth and more science. Cloud seeding is being used to induce precipitation artificially. Despite the increasingly evident environmental impact of giant hydroelectric plants such as the Three Gorges Dam, the nation's thirst for energy has pushed policy makers to announce plans for dozens of dams along the tributaries of the Yangtze, the Yellow and the Nu rivers...

Environmentalists argue that China needs a fundamental change of philosophy. Although Hu's administration has promoted sustainable development for three years, local governments do not appear to be listening. Why should they? With no elections and no free media, cadres are more worried about their superiors than the people they are supposed to serve...

China and Japan: cartoon warfare

As a celebration of National Day, the CCTV in China is now showing a 36 episodes 3-D Cartoon “Devil soldiers in Mao-er Mountain” (帽兒山的鬼子兵)in October. The cartoon was produced by a company in Heilongjiang and selected by the National boardcast bureau in Dongbei area (North east China) as one of the best cartoon production of the year