What’s China Got To Do With It?
Howard W. French filed a story in Friday’s International Herald Tribune illuminating the relationship between China and the bloody protests in Myanmar this week. While it seems as though Burma has been a ticking time bomb for some years now, is it unclear whether what we have witnessed over the past few days — Buddhist monks rallying over 70,000 protesters Thursday to hit the streets, an estimated 200 civilian deaths, images of Myanmar’s military government spraying fire into a dense crowd of protesters — will end in an overthrow of Myanmar’s junta or will merely end as a victory for the government. Thursday the Burmese government cut the country’s internet in order to minimize the dissemination of images that let the rest of the world see what’s going on there and occupied monasteries of the monks that have spearheaded the protests. Friday, reports claimed that military had taken control of the streets. Myanmar’s big brother to the east, China, has been noticeably slow to get involved in the struggle, reluctantly urging restraint and offended that the Western media has accused Beijing of inaction. As French points out in his always-interesting Letter from China, to call Myanmar and China “allies” undervalues the closeness of their relationship. Nestled between India and China, Myanmar is an unexplored treasure-trove of oil and China is by far, the nation’s biggest trade partner. There is no doubt that a new West-friendly democracy in Myanmar would damage China’s economic interests, and thus Beijing is thrust into its least favorite position of having to choose between economic and moral interests. French asks about China: “Is it a slick free rider on an international system whose workings have done so much to favor its emergence, hiding behind a platitude-based foreign policy while allowing others to do the world’s heavy lifting?” China has the influence to make Myanmar do anything, Beijing’s policy is to stay out of other country’s internal affairs. With the Olympics approaching and as China weathers the storm of public opinion over its Darfur policy and numerous product scandals, the Chinese government can’t afford to suffer yet another P.R. disaster. This is as good of a time as any for China to do some of the world’s heavy lifting and to show the world that it can be the bouncer that not only controls the bar but controls the whole street. As the Internet lines have been disabled in Myanmar, what happens there over the next few days will be less visible. Whether Beijing likes it or not, the same world that has empowered modern China economically will expect that China use its influence to restrain Myanmar’s military.
•IHT: Myanmar Crackdown Sheds Light on Beijing’s Aspirations
•AP: Troops Take Back Control in Myanmar
Hong Kong is famous for many things — barbecued pork buns, the Triads and tailor-made suits to name a few. But one of the most unique features of China’s autonomous neighbor to the south is the presence of Filipino maids. They’re everywhere. And if you’ve ever had the pleasure of walking around Hong Kong on a Sunday, they’re quite literally everywhere. The Filipino maids customarily live in the homes of their employers and on Sundays, their day off, they line the streets of Hong Kong, speaking Tagalog, playing cards and most likely, telling each other what pricks their bosses are. Apparently, there is a prick boss bigger than any other in Hong Kong. And that is Jacky Cheung, one of the Four Heavenly Kings and perhaps Hong Kong’s most famous Canto-pop singer. The South China Morning Post reported Thursday that Cheung has been prohibited from hiring any more Filipino house maids after firing 21 maids in 3 years. That’s 7 a year and roughly one every 7 weeks. According to the paper, the Filipino Consulate placed Cheung and his wife on the “blacklist of sub-standard employers.” One of Cheung’s previous maids, who claimed to be his 60th, was jailed last year for stealing memorabilia from his house. I guess it’s surprising that Cheung is such a dick, but I’ve seen Jacky Cheung a few times before on TV and to be honest, what I’m astonished about is that he’s married. To a woman. I guess Jacky is more of a no-nonsense kinda guy than his frosted tips would have you believe.
For those not familiar with China’s governmental procedure, every five years the highest body within the Communist Party gets together in Beijing to discuss Communist Party policy and changes to the Party’s leadership. This is called the National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 17th meeting of this body occurs next month. This body is separate from and often confused with the National People’s Congress, which meets every March and is not as highly regarded. What does this have to do with sex sounds, you wonder. Well, in the month leading up to the meetings of either body, China’s censors get all frenzied and start blocking various Web sites and cracking down on what is perceived to be immoral, subversive or suggestive media. Peter Ford of the Christian Science Monitor wrote a story this week claiming that leading up to October’s five-yearly Congress meeting, Beijing has executed the biggest Internet crackdown in Chinese history. CSM cited a Shanghai Daily story claiming that access to 18,401 “illegal” sites have been blocked since April, less than half of which were pornographic. While pornograpy is clearly not condoned by the Chinese government, it is not the sex sites only that have been shut down. Reportedly, the censorship bureau has been targeting sites with interactive features such as forums, chat rooms or commenting systems and the CSM claimed that over half of China’s sites with interactive capabilities have been disabled. Ford writes, “To avoid being blocked, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in China and individual websites have been disabling chatrooms, forums, and other interactive features that might provide a platform for viewpoints unacceptable to the authorities.” As far as I can tell this crackdown has targeted Chinese-language sites only as some of the more popular interactive English sites have remained unchanged. But the war on lewd content is not confined to the Web. Ahead of next month’s Congress meeting, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has banned a female crime television documentary, reality shows featuring plastic surgery or contests and last, “sex sounds.” A SARFT statement explaining the move read, “sexually suggestive advertisements and scenes showing how women are influenced into a life of crime are detrimental to society.” From Beijing’s perspective, in the same way that anonymous forums encourage political dissidence, television programs that recreate crimes committed by women encourage more women to commit crime. Nothing was said about shows depicting men committing crimes. But let’s get back to the “sex sounds.” According to the SARFT notice, “Commercials containing sexually provocative sounds or tantalizing language as well as vulgar advertisements for breast enhancement and female underwear are banned, effective immediately.” Granted, I don’t watch a lot of Chinese television. Nor am I very familiar with Chinese “sex sounds.” I said “very” familiar. But I’m about 100% certain, that on the TV channels I get, there are no Chinese sex sounds nor Chinese women sitting around in their underwear. And if I’m wrong, kindly send an e-mail telling me the channel on which I can find them. According to Reuters, since August, a total of 1,446 ads worth $246 million have been pulled from television and radio. And often times, like when the National People’s Congress met last in March, restrictions loosen within the month after the meeting. The crackdowns prior to the Congresses seem to be purely symbolic, a flexing of the Party’s muscle to create, however phony, a mighty facade. I suppose this Party officials view these measures as necessary in order to conduct productive legislative discourse. Who knows really. Perhaps Beijing uses the Congress merely as an excuse to exercise the the controls over Chinese society that, if not for the Congress, might be met with hostility. Who knows. What Chinese writers do know is that none of these questions will be answered and that they will have to continue expressing themselves unclear of what’s permissible to say and aware of the what can happen if they say the wrong thing. For me, I’m just sorry I never got to experience the orgasmic moaning and half-naked women that, unbeknownst to me, characterize the Chinese airwaves.
What do you do when your man is untrue? Lil’ Kim would tell you to “cut the sucka’ off and find someone new.” A Henan woman, Xia Xinfeng, took much more extreme measures earlier this year when she killed her lover, Mao Ansheng, with a kiss. Tuesday, a Henan province court sentenced her to death. If you’re thinking she had some horribly contagious disease or bit out his tongue or even a deadly case of bad breath, you’d be wrong. The Shanghai Daily reported Wednesday, “When they dated on January 9, Xia held a capsule with rat poison in her mouth and passed it to Mao’s mouth during a kiss. Mao swallowed the capsule and died soon after.” In case this wasn’t clear, she held a capsule full of rat poison in her mouth and then passed it to her boyfriend during a kiss. I’m guessing there was a lot of tongue involved, but that is neither here nor there. Reportedly, the couple had an agreement whereby if either person was unfaithful to the other, the cheater would have to die. Xia claimed in court that she found her boyfriend “talking with another woman” the day before and did what any logical person would do. She killed him the next day. I’m thinking that while Xia certainly deserves a harsh penalty for the murder, she should definitely get some points for creativity. And for keeping up her end of her and her lover’s agreement. While Xia was found guilty of murder, it is still unknown whether or not Mao was guilty of cheating on his lover.
It’s a good day for American business travelers. The Chinese government, traditionally stingy with approving direct flight routes to the US, is having some sort change of heart. On Tuesday, China began its “I Guess There Are A Lot of Americans Who Like to Come Here” 5-year flight sale. For all you Southernplayalistic Coke-swigging Atlanta residents, a new Delta direct flight between Atlanta and Shanghai begins in April. According to an AP story Tuesday, United Airlines has also been granted a direct flight between Guangzhou and San Francisco because according to a United official, “these two cities have close ties.” China has also approved direct flights from New York to Shanghai on Continental, to begin in 2009, and Detroit to Shanghai on Northworst. This means no more stops in Tokyo or for heaven’s sake, Minneapolis. Any American who lives over here knows there’s something wrong with the China-U.S. flight offerings. Going home to see Mom often means buying an incredibly expensive ticket just to spend 4 or 5 hours on a layover in Minneapolis or Icheon. It seems odd that in late 2007, there is still no direct flight on an American carrier from New York to Shanghai. China has a five-year plan to double the number of flights between the U.S. and China. This will not only make it easier for business travelers and expats living here, but it will lower ticket prices for these flights significantly. Congrats to Delta for winning the coveted Atlanta route. And as Outkast once said, “catfish and grits is how my flow flow.” Wait, sorry wrong line. Delta, as Outkast once said, “now players if you choose it, you better make sure you don’t abuse it.”
Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York for a two-day trip in which he will engage in a debate at Columbia University Monday and address the UN General Assembly Tuesday. New York’s police denied Ahmadinejad’s request to visit Ground Zero and pay his respects to the victims of September 11th. Generally speaking, Americans don’t “like” Ahmadinejad. His name is too long. He doesn’t like women going to college. He has long been accused of funding Muslim terrorist groups with money and munitions, including the insurgency in Iraq. And the reason I don’t like him is that ‘Jad is a vicious anti-Zionist and an emphatic Holocaust denier, who said in a 2005 speech that Israel should be “wiped off the map” calling it a “disgraceful stain on the Muslim world.” He told the press that Americans are misinformed and that the purpose of this trip is to clarify Iran’s views on global politics, nuclear weapon development and terrorism. Over the weekend at Columbia University, students, alumni, city officials and NY residents held protests, many calling for ‘Jad to be arrested when he arrives to Columbia. The upper West Side of Mahattan, where Columbia is located, is home to a large Jewish population and thousands are expected to protest Monday. University President Lee Bollinger (who in his last job was my university president) plans on introducing M-Jad and presenting him with a “series of tough challenges.” Columbia Dean John Coatsworth 
Saturday was the international “Car Free Day,” and the Chinese took part in the day of environmental awareness by, well, driving their cars freely. Over a hundred Chinese cities were supposed to participate in the day, however, according to all reports (other than those from the state-run media), the streets looked exactly the same — dirty, smoggy and jam-packed with cars. What did people expect? Tumbleweeds rolling down a silent Yanan Road? A Beijing cab driver told AFP, “It’s the same as always, I don’t see any difference.” Here in Shanghai, the city boasted a reduction in vehicle usage. The Shanghai Daily found that traffic in Lujiazui, the city’s financial district was cut by 60%. Ok, that sounds impressive. Was it because the Chinese left their cars at home in an effort to make a statement for the environment? If only. It was Saturday! Nobody drove to Lujiazui because nobody had to work! To give Shanghai some credit, the city did ban cars from certain parts of Nanjing and Huaihai Roads. And that’s about it. Guangzhou, China’s fourth largest city, didn’t even take part in the car free day, claiming that its public transportation system wasn’t ready for the extra strain. The sad fact of the matter is that Saturdays in China are not about taking public transportation, uniting in an effort to show respect the environment or riding a bike. Saturdays in China are about one thing only: shopping. They’re about getting into that new cute VW Polo or Jetta, sitting in gridlock for 45 minutes and going to the mall. I guess there’s always next year.
After months of work and some tedious tinkering, the new Flumesday is finally here. While at first glance, the new site may look the same, things are drastically different. For months now, I was like the only site in the world without an RSS feed. If you don’t know what this is, don’t worry. I didn’t either a few months ago. Well, I now have one. Other than that, the major upgrade is the navigation capabilities to the site. You can click on post titles and see that at the bottom of every individual post you can click to the next and previous post and use the side panel to browse posts by week or by category. Each category also has its own RSS feed. Not to mention the hot new header designed by yours truly. The image is a negative of a photo of the Yanan Lu ramp onto the Bund in Shanghai taken from underneath the highway. As I said in the Flumesday birthday post, the search capabilities are also greatly improved. A post is searchable as soon as it is posted. For example, whereas before there were only three posts with the word “vagina,” as of right now, there are four. Another cool feature for you long-time readers is that all the old Stateside posts that used to disappear after a couple weeks are all available now for reading. To see the posts, just click Stateside on the category listings, which are on the right side of every page other than the front page. You’ll also notice a change in the commenting system. All comments are now embedded within the pages as opposed to the old pop-up window. Look around and feel free to e-mail me with any suggestions or if you find that anything is messed up. On this day of Autumnal Equinox, when the Chinese celebrate the harvest, please enjoy the fruits of my labor. Except for the Jewish readers who are atoning and can read it when the sun goes down. And all my Muslim friends who are observing Ramadan and can catch up next month. And of course, the Chinese who are busy eating moon cakes. Take a break from your lunar holidays and unite in some Flumesday.