The Agonist - China

And the Gold Medal Goes to --- China!

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 17:49:52 -0700

Five days are left in the Beijing Olympics, or as they are called in the U.S., the Michael Phelps reality show. NBC surprised even itself at the enormous U.S. viewing audience that was generated by Michael Phelps every time he swam, though in China he is not much of a story. There the press talks about China’s record 43 gold medals, twice as many so far as they achieved in the Athens games.

It does look like China’s state-sponsored athletic training program, modeled on the old Soviet and Eastern European medal producing machines, is performing as requested by the Politburo (I didn’t know they still had one of these in China). China is destined to grab the gold medal lead from the United States, proving that collective national spirit ultimately trumps the American individualistic ethic. That may be what it proves, but a lot of questions have come up about how little a role the individual plays in China’s state-organized games.

Digg it - Buzz it

Olympics: Child singer revealed as fake

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 05:58:19 -0700

Tania Branigan | Beijing | August 12

The Guardian - When nine-year-old Lin Miaoke launched into Ode to the Motherland at the Olympic opening ceremony, she became an instant star.

"Tiny singer wins heart of nation," China Daily sighed; "Little girl sings, impresses the world," gushed another headline, perhaps in reference to Lin's appearance on the front of the New York Times. Countless articles lauded the girl in the red dress who "lent her voice" to the occasion.

But now it emerges that Lin lent someone else's voice, following high-level discussions - which included a member of the Politburo - on the relative photogenicity of small children.

Eight dead after bombing in western China

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 02:59:46 -0700

Jonathan Watts | August 10

The Guardian - A Chinese security guard locks the gates at the Drum Tower in Beijing, following the murder of a US citizen at tourist attraction. Photograph: Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

A gun battle and attempted tricycle bombing claimed eight lives in western China today in an apparent attempt by Islamic separatist groups to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics.

Police shot dead seven alleged militants, a security guard was killed and two police cars destroyed in the pre-dawn attack in Kuqa, a city in the Xinjiang region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and several other central Asian states.

U.S.-China Olympic rivalry goes beyond counting medals

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:38:40 -0700

Jack Chang | August 7

McClatchy - While China has billed the 2008 Summer Games starting Friday as the coming-out party of a new world power, the United States enters the 18-day competition struggling to stay on top both in athletics and on the world stage. Many observers are predicting a second-place U.S. finish in the total medals count, a result that would be seen by many as symbolic of a shift in the global balance of power.

New mega-embassies underscore close U.S., China ties

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:42:27 -0700

Jack Chang | Beijing | August 5

McClatchy - The new U.S. Embassy in the Chinese capital is a sprawling maze of glass and concrete that's the second biggest construction project in the history of the State Department. President Bush himself will inaugurate the complex Friday.

Last week, Chinese officials opened their own giant embassy in Washington, which, at 250,000 square feet, is the biggest embassy in the U.S. capital.

More Uighur Violence

Mon, 04 Aug 2008 01:07:23 -0700

This is really saddening. It really breaks my heart to hear of this, and to know this is happening in a city I have very strong feelings for. From the article:

On Monday morning, Xinhua, the state news agency, reported what appeared to be the deadliest assault against Chinese security forces in recent memory: 16 policemen were killed and 16 others injured when attackers threw two grenades into a police station in the desert oasis town of Kashgar, in the far west, after driving a truck into the station at 8 a.m. Two men were arrested.

I can't say, however, that I am surprised. This would be the best chance the Uighur's would ever have to draw any serious news coverage to their plight--and a valid plight it is, what with the Chinese boot firmly lodged at their throats for so long and so hard. But what pains me the most is that this attention getting is being done the worst possible way at the worst possible time. They won't elicit any sympathy from anyone, no matter how deserved. The killing of innocents never does. Even if they are policemen, and in some sense legitimate targets. I still don't understand why people don't just lay down in the middle of the road sometimes. What power a protest like that would portray? Don't we all remember the lone man stopping a column of tanks in Beijing in 1989?

People of Beijing told what not to wear

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 07:21:08 -0700

Stephen McGinty | Aug 2

Scotsman - THE Little Red Book, the sayings of Chairman Mao, has been replaced by a little red booklet that instructs Beijing's residents how to act and dress ahead of next week's Olympics.

** Don't mix more than three colours

** Do shake hands for three seconds only

** Don't wear your pyjamas in public

Like a totalitarian version of Trinny and Susannah, Zheng Mojie, deputy director of the Office of Capital Spiritual Civilisation Construction Commission, has penned a booklet posted to four million Beijing households stating acceptable standards of dress and behaviour.

US restores status of islets at centre of Japan-South Korea row

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:38:10 -0700

Washington | July 31

AFP - The United States has decided to restore the status of a group of tiny islands claimed by both South Korea and Japan as territory belonging to South Korea, President George W. Bush said Wednesday.

Amid an escalating dispute over the islets between the two Asian neighbours, the US government's Board on Geographic Names (BGN) recently changed its classification of the islets from a territory of South Korea to "undesignated sovereignty."

"As to the database, I asked (Secretary of State Condoleezza) Rice to review it and the database will be restored to where it was ... seven days ago," Bush told a group of Asian reporters at the White House.

He pointed out however that the dispute over the islets was a matter to be settled by Japan and South Korea.

IOC says it cannot order China to lift internet blocks

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 07:59:27 -0700

July 30

dpa - The chairman of the International Olympic Committee's press commission, Kevan Gosper, has said he was 'disappointed' that the Chinese authorities were blocking websites deemed sensitive, but that the IOC cannot tell China what to do, according to a report in the South China Morning Post Wednesday.

Gosper's statements to the newspaper indicate the IOC apparently knew in advance that the websites would be blocked, despite having told the international media that the estimated 25,000 journalists who are in Beijing already or will arrive in coming days to report about the 2008 Olympic Games would be granted unfettered access.

'I have also been advised that some of the IOC officials had negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked,' the Hong Kong-based newspaper quoted Gosper saying.

'I would like it all to be open. I am not here to defend the Chinese decisions. I am here to ensure journalists can report on the Games. I am disappointed the access is not wider. But I can't tell the Chinese what to do,' Gosper said.

India Is No China

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 22:05:55 -0700

Anyone who thinks India is the next China (Flathead, I'm looking at you) is simply insane. It's just not going to happen. What India does best is make big promises and never, ever delivers. And American policy makers who put too much stock in an so-called Indian counter-weight to China are fools.

Seriously, if you think the French penchant for arguing philosophical points to absurd lengths is maddening, wait until you have to deal with an Indian IT professional who literally buries you in a barrage of questions on details so minute as to be utterly inane. And then come the price negotiations. Indians make a Persian bazaar or an Arab souk feel like a cakewalk or a sleigh ride on a snowy winter's eve.

This doesn't detract from how I feel about my Indian friends in particular. They are some of the kindest, most genuine people I know. But people who think doing business in India is or will be easy--other than call centers, that is--don't know enough about India to make a realistic decision. India will be an extremely difficult market for Western businessmen who are, by and large, unaccustomed to the day to day realities of life in India, the tremendous lack of effective infrastructure, much less the quirks of Indian business decision making. It can really be infuriating.

As for the call centers: I think the main reason certain jobs can be outsourced to India is their particular penchant for detail. Yeah, I know this is a broad generalization, and generalizations are so uncool to make, but it happens to be true. Call centers do well in India because Indians will take the time--and massive amounts of it--to learn a product inside and out. Radiology is another example of their amazing capacity for detail. Accountants? They better be very careful too.

But those executives who think India is the next China, the next untapped reservoir of millions of untapped middle class budgets and business capex are really fooling themselves. And they are in for nothing but bewilderment when it comes time to cut deals. Only those with the most patience will survive.

At least this has been my practical, hands-on experience so far with Indian business.

Uighur Bid To Disrupt Games In Beijing?

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:53:52 -0700

I don't think it is any secret how I feel about the Chinese and their policies in East Turkestan. (Needless to say I have a pretty complicated relationship with Chinese peoples the world over, especially as I live in Singapore now.) But having visited the region multiple times it's clear how oppressive the authorities in Beijing really are. As I mentioned on my first Silk Road journey and then during a subsequent trip to Kashgar three years later, the devastation of the old neighborhoods in the name of progress was intense. Ye old Kashgar is no more. It's been ripped to shreds by Beijing dictated development policies. Just look at a google satellite map of the city and you'll see. The old neighborhoods are vanishing.

Now it seems the Uighurs may have found a voice of sorts and a stage to use it on:

A Uighur separatist group has taken credit for a deadly bus bombing in Shanghai in May and warned of new attacks in China during the Olympics, a group monitoring threats by extremists on the Internet said.

As an Agonist contributor wrote me recently regarding this issue: "This might be a harbinger. The Uighurs are much more violence-disposed than the Tibetans. And they have links to al Qaeda."

And there's no doubt George Bush will be a Chinese sock-puppet too.

I'm certainly not advocating violence here, especially at the Games. I think people the world over would do well to learn from Gandhi and MLK's example of peaceful but forceful protest. If done properly the moral authority is almost always too powerful to overcome.

And yet, I've seen with my own eyes what is happening in East Turkestan (also known as Altishahr or Xinjiang) and it isn't pretty. People have their limits and when reached they push back, right or wrong. I won't deny any man or woman the right to defend his or her homeland in any way he or she chooses, violence or not.

Tibetan Situation Blog

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:17:33 -0700

http://tibetansituation.blogspot.com/

Old News, Courtesy The New York Times

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:39:27 -0700

Funny, the old hutong neighborhoods have been disappearing for the last thirty years. But leave it to the New York Times to put it on the front page and explain to us it's all the fault of the Olympics. Anything to sell the games, fraud that they are.

Let me add, before anyone gets into a tizzy: the games are a fraud not because they are in Beijing. They are a fraud because they lost the true Olympic spirit a long time ago, when VISA and MacDonalds and all the other commercial outlets weren't the 'Official insert name here" crap began. It's all a bunch of commercial garbage now.

Deal Hands Islands Back to China

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 06:41:38 -0700

Nabi Abdullaev | July 22

Moscow Times - Russia and China on Monday signed a pact demarcating their 4,300-kilometer border, an issue that has been a bone of contention for more than three centuries and that led to armed clashes as recently as the late 1960s.

And although Russia is returning one island and part of another -- 174 square kilometers of territory -- in the Amur River, near the regional capital of Khabarovsk, political analysts said the move was positive for a Russia looking to secure its eastern borders in the face of its increasingly powerful Communist neighbor.

The protocol was signed Monday in Beijing by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Chinese counterpart, Yang Jeichi, bringing an end to more than 40 years of negotiations.

Beijing building boom halted for Games

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 04:51:00 -0700

July 22, 2008
Bill Schiller, Asia Bureau

BEIJING–Building sites in this booming city usually teem with trucks, cranes and earth moving machines that roar from dawn until dusk.

But yesterday all of that was silent here and a major exodus was underway.

Over the weekend authorities shut down thousands of construction sites across Beijing forcing more than a million migrant construction workers into flight. It's all part of the grand effort to tame the city's pollution and reduce airborne dust before the Olympic Games.

With 17 days to go before the opening ceremonies, China is doing everything it can to put its best face forward – that includes making sure the dust settles.