China's Final Say on Drug Smuggling

In China, drug trafficking is a serious offense. According to Chinese law, trafficking of “50 grams or more of drugs is punishable by long prison terms.” The smuggling of larger amounts receives life sentences or death.

As of October 21, 2010, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in Manila, there are more than 70 Filipinos in China who were convicted and sentenced to death for drug trafficking. In recent years, China has also executed drug traffickers from Britain, Malaysia, Thailand and Japan.

China has always been a big brother figure in the East Asian region. Even now as China emerges as a significant power in the world stage, its neighbors must respect China’s methods and laws.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/30/china.philippine.executions/index.html

Japan nuclear crisis a wake-up call for China

Following the nuclear power plant crisis in Japan, China has ordered safety inspections of its existing nuclear plants and suspension of new plant approvals. On March 16, Beijing's top nuclear power regulatory body quickly announced a series of guidelines advising nuclear power plants to take disaster stress tests on planned and existing projects.

China operates 13 nuclear reactors. Even though it is a small number compared to the 104 in the United States, China is currently constructing more than two dozen others and 50 more are being proposed. In the last twenty years, China's energy needs have grown exponentially due to its rapid economic boom and urbanization. China last year surpassed the US as the world's largest consumer of energy; it depends on fossil fuel for 91% of its needs. Hence, such an ambitious nuclear power program is understandable.

However, in light of the human and environmental disaster looming in Japan, many Chinese are asking: How safe are China's nuclear plants? Experts say China is now reviewing the risks associated with earthquakes and tsunamis. China has had its share of major earthquakes, like the 7.9-magnitude quake in 2008, which killed over 80,000 in Wenzhou, Sichuan province. The existing and planned nuclear plants are all located along its eastern and southern coastlines, which brings up questions of whether the facilities are vulnerable to a tsunami. Moreover, another worry is lack of transparency. Although China has signed and ratified the International Atomic Energy Agency's Convention on Nuclear Safety, critics say China is slow in providing public information on safety and waste-management.

Before the disaster in Japan, most people did not necessarily understand the risks they were facing, but now people are actually more aware of the potential harms. Perhaps, the disaster in Japan can help to raise awareness of nuclear energy not only in China, but in other parts of the world.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/25/china.nuclear/index.html

Tightened Electronic Censorship in Light of the Middle Eastern Crisis

As political turmoil continues to grip the Middle East, China is becoming increasingly wary of electronic modes of communication. Not surprisingly, the Chinese government has opted to crackdown on cellphone conversations, e-mail messages, and Internet usage. Most recently, the government has tightened censorship control over VPNs (internet proxies favored by students and expats that help detour firewalls) and Google. While the Chinese have not explicitly declared the censorship of Google, engineers have determined that there is no evidence of technical malfunctioning. The inference then, is that the Chinese government is most likely to blame provided that they have previously condemned social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and even Google as tools of the United States. Moreover, the Chinese government has, on multiple accounts, claimed that such sites pose a threat to political stability and serve only to "manufacture social disorder." Given that China has always maintained a sense of notoriety for its censorship of the press, this article seems to cater to the already critical attitudes harbored by most Americans against China's human rights policies. The journalists in this particular news article notes how one English speaker’s cellphone conversation was cut short by casually recapitulating a famed Hamlet quote that coincidentally included the word “protest.” The article even invokes Shakespeare in the very opening line (and rather humorously at that), which immediately serves to the draw readers’ attention. By poking fun at the new lengths for which the Chinese will go to stifle basic civil rights, the article perpetuates the perception of extremity that is widely associated with the Chinese government.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/22/world/asia/22china.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=china

- Grace

Behind China's Internet Censorship

Online censorship has been a major issue in China's new media realm since the rise of the Internet itself in the mid 90s. The Chinese government and its large Internet police force actively block anything and everything that introduces the possibility for uprising or unrest. This includes social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook, online forums, and risky keywords.

China's restrictions tighten with every rumor of possible protest. Recently, there has been a call in the online community for a "Jasmine Revolution" inspired by the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. As a result, the government has quickly moved to plug the holes in its "Great Firewall." A number of virtual private networks (VPNs) - "encrypted tunnels through the Internet that make communications secure and enable users to bypass censors" - have reported problems in the past few days. Gmail has also encountered problems such as long loading times and chat malfunctions. Google, which moved from mainland to HK after a public struggle with the censorship system last year, stated that there are no technical difficulties on their end. The government is going to lengths to mask the issue by not blocking Gmail directly but by making it seem as if the issue is internal.

The unrest in the Middle East has also presented a major threat to China's social stability since China is experiencing many similar issues (rising public dissatisfaction over inflation, official corruption, and growing income disparities). Not surprisingly, keywords like "Egypt" and "Libya" have been blocked from all search engines. Interestingly, Chinese netizens have employed the use of different euphemisms to get around the blocked material (for example, embedding social commentary in discussions of "jasmine tea").

More and more, China's Internet system is becoming an isolated intranet. The increasingly limited flow of information could very well hinder China's progress in innovation and development. The new move is also angering many who are dependent on proxies to access blocked overseas information. Expats are losing patience with the government interference and considering moving out of China. This may have a serious economic toll on China's growing number of foreign firms.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/TECH/social.media/03/28/China.blogger.mao/index.html?hpt=C2

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/china-plugging-holes-in-great-firewall-2254327.html

-Annie-

An Increase in Chinese Undergrads at American Universities

An article in the Chicago Sun-Times yesterday reported that China exported more students to the U.S. than any other country last academic year and that out of the 691,000 international students attending in American Universities, 18 percent were Chinese.

China has had this ranking before in both the late 1980’s and 1990’s, but this difference this time around is that the majority of these Chinese students are coming to American Universities as undergraduates.

The influx of Chinese students enrolling in American Universities this time around can be attributed to premium China places on American degrees and the new wave of middle class families in China that want and can afford to send their children to American Universities at full price.

With this influx comes many benefits. With the great increase in U.S. corporations conducting business with China, having U.S. educated employees is a great advantage.

The increase in diversity on campuses is also beneficial for the students by “creating more of the global community students will graduate into,” said Robert Easter, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s interim chancellor and provost. However, there is an element of alienation as well. “They definitely stick with each other,” said Keira Huang, 22, a senior at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign who transferred from a Chinese university. “Most of them complain that we want to have more American friends, practice English and learn more about the Western campus. But they stick with each other maybe because they are shy or afraid of a new environment.”

Much of the United States’ concerns about China as a rising superpower have to do with China’s differences socially, politically, and ideologically. With this influx of Chinese students to the Unites States, America has been given a unique and important opportunity to educate and close the gap between China and the U.S. on these platforms. By educating a portion of the youth of China now, it will undoubtedly ease some of the tension that exists between the United States and China improve how interactions on all platforms are conducted between these two powerful countries.

Also, with schools like NYU opening up a campus in Shanghai
for as many as 3,000 students in the Fall of 2013, it seems like an even more global education and mutual understanding between the United States and China is on the horizon.

Former U.S. Nuclear Envoy Expresses Concerns about China's Leniency Toward North Korea

On March 27th, one day after the memorial ceremony commemorating the sinking of a South Korean War ship by North Korean forces, a Former U.S. Nuclear Envoy, Christopher Hill, expressed his concerns about China not recognizing the results of a South Korean led international probe which identified North Korea as the perpetrator of the act. The attack by North Korea, which left 46 sailors dead and drastically elevated tension in the Korean Peninsula, violated the six-party agreement (between the two Koreas, China, Russia, and Japan) that Hill helped to forge from 2005-2009, which stated that North Korea would dismantle its nuclear programs in return for certain political and economic benefits.

What I found interesting about this article, provided by Yonhap News (a South Korean news agency based in Seoul), is it's use of a voice from the United States specifically to condemn China's behavior.

Hill can be quoted as saying: "I don't think there's any reasonable person in the world who does not know what actually happened" and "I don't understand a policy that seems to not want to deal with facts."

Hill was quoted while he was at a nuclear nonproliferation conference outside Seoul. Out of all the experts attending, why did this news station choose Hill out of all of the other qualified experts present? It is true Hill had previous experience in dealings with nuclear power in the region before, however, Hill is commenting on China’s actions, not North Korea’s.

In addition to pointing out China’s overt defense of North Korea on the U.N. Security Council by vetoing any attempts by the United States and South Korea to sanction North Korea, the article does a good job of highlighting the fundamental reason why it is concerned about China’s sympathies toward North Korea by pointing out that China is North Korea’s “only remaining ideological backer.” This ideological connection between China and North Korea, as well as including the opinions of an American nuclear envoy, has reminded Western readers not only of their enemy in North Korea, but has aligned China with their enemy as well.

One must remember, however, that this article comes from a South Korean news source, so it is obviously bias toward South Korea and the United States. But the connections they make between North Korea and China, whether subtle or overt, clearly send the message that China is too sympathetic to a common enemy to be considered an ally.

China's Salt Panic

This article about China's salt panic caught my eye because of its ridiculousness.  This article is a blog post by John Kennedy on Global Voices on the salt buying panic in China.  There were rumours that the radiation from Japan makes salt unsafe, so there was a mad rush to buy salt in the supermarkets.  The blog shows pictures, news clips, as well as reader's comments and tweets.  

http://globalvoicesonline.org/2011/03/16/china-salt-radiation-rumors-fuel-widespread-panic-buying/

This article was of particular interest to me because it depicted a demand shock and irrational choices in action.  A lot of reports on the Chinese economy tend to assume that things will work exactly like economic models, and one of the big assumptions in such models is that people are rational.  This salt panic demonstrates that such is not the case.  And the salt panic seems to have slipped largely through the mainstream media cracks, perhaps because it is too 'soft' to be reported.  It is then no wonder that mainstream news, that reports mostly on hard facts and figures of the Chinese economy and often forget about the actual people behind the numbers, make China's economic rise more foreboding than it actually may be.  It's difficult to be intimidated by a country that believes in salt radiation rumours to such an extent that whole aisles of salt are cleaned out.   

World Bank's forecast for China

World Bank Chief Economist Justin Lin said on March 24th that China "has the potential to achieve 8 percent annual growth for the next 20 more years and overtake the U.S. as the world's largest economy by 2030" (http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/03/25/2011032501188.html).  A quick search yields the following three articles:
http://english.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2011/03/25/2011032501188.html (Korean newspaper)
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/03/24/world_bank_china_can_grow_at_8_for_20_years (Foreign Policy, US-based magazine)
http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/03/25/47985971.html (Russian newspaper)


All three articles reported on the speech made by Justin Lin at the China Economic Development Forum in Beijing.  


The first article by Chosun Ilbo summarizes the key points Lin made concerning China's economic prospects, but also notes Lin's concerns for Chinese market's need for reform.  This article is more traditional, using soundbites to articulate a story.  Their word choices also tend to be more neutral and focuses on macro-level statistics and framing.


The Foreign Policy blog post by Joshua Keating uses Lin's statement as a launchpad of comparing Mexico and China's economy in 1995, noting that Mexico's has stagnated while China's is still growing, but in terms of GDP per capita Mexico is still richer.  While article still uses macro-level statistics, it does briefly mention the impact of such statistics on the Chinese population, noting that " for China's 1.3 billion people, the day when they're as rich as Mexicans may be more significant."


The third article by the Voice of Russia offers more insights into the mechanics behind China's rise.  The article talks briefly about the Chinese currency and praises their conservative financial system as reasons for China's growth, but notes that inflation could be a worry.  


The main thing that struck me about all three articles is the lack of paranoia concerning China's rise.  The neutrality of Chosun and Voice of Russia's article is understandable as neither are American, not the current hegemon, and are therefore not threatened by China's economic rise.  The lack of paranoia in Keating's post is interesting.  Perhaps he is one of the few who is able to put macro statistics in perspective?  

China to "overtake US and dominate trade by 2030"

Even the BBC is not immune to dramatization.  The article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12848449) reports that both the World Bank and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), an accounting firm, found that China's economy will be larger than the United States if its growth rates remain at current rates.  The BBC then summarizes PwC's findings that the Chinese are trading a lot (they are one of the trading partners in 17 of the largest 25 trading pairings) and that they manufacture almost 20% of the world's goods.  There are also a smattering of other statistics concerning China's trade and manufacturing position.

All in all, the BBC does not paint a very good picture or provide a good critque of PwC's finding.  What they did well was provide snapshots of data and trends that supported PwC's report.  The two "explanations" the BBC provided in its article was cheap labour and it's current manufacturing position, both explanations which were thrown in at the end of the article that seemed to imply this may be why China is to be the dominant economic force in the future.  However, since both facts are better explanations for China's current economic position, it seems that the BBC simply relayed and summarized the conclusion of PwC's report without providing any explanations as to how likely it is that China's growth rates will be sustained.  No explanation is given except for the small disclaimer, "if it [China] can sustain its growth".

It is these types of articles with little analysis and insight that clouds China's ascent in mystery, thus further fueling the paranoia.

China Bans Some Foods From Japan

A few days ago Chinese officials said they had detected elevated radioactivity on a Japanese merchant vessel that had docked in southeast China and on two Japanese tourists who arrived earlier in the week were said to have emitted “abnormally high” levels of radiation. On the same day, China joined several other countries that have sought to limit potential radioactive contamination from Japan, by banning fish, vegetables and other food products from regions closest to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

In the two weeks since an earthquake and devastating tsunami hit the Fukushima plant, countries including the United States, Russia, Australia, Singapore and South Korea have banned specific Japanese products or announced strict monitoring of imports that could have been affected by radioactive emissions from the nuclear facility. Taiwan has also restricted imports.

The contamination of the Japanese tourists was neither a threat to the tourists nor to the public. The two tourists had been given iodine tablets and were released after their luggage and clothing had been “decontaminated." However, China’s anxiety over the possible effects of Japan’s nuclear crisis have heightened monitoring and banning of Japanese imports.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/world/asia/26beijing.html?_r=1

-Sarah

Tobacco in East Asia

Although the West invented and spread the use of tobacco, the East has taken up the habits. Currently, China has one of the world’s highest smoking rates, over 30 percent of the adult population. Greece is the country with highest smoking population, but Japan, South Korea, and China have fairly large groups of people who are smoking. (http://www.economist.com/node/11333122?story_id=11333122)

Both South Korea and Japan have executed unsuccessful campaigns of quitting tobacco usage. However, beginning from May 1st, China will soon take the dramatic step of banning cigarettes in hotels, restaurants, shopping malls and most other indoor public spaces. The actual results of the new laws remain unclear, because the government-issued trend away from public smoking does not include punishment from violation of law. However, the Chinese government does plan to take action by raising taxes on cigarettes and curbing smoking scenes in TV shows and films. (http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/03/26/china-gets-tougher-on-smoking-but-gently/)

China's View on Japanese Tsunami

It is not surprising to find China and other East Asian neighbors worried over the consequences of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. Especially with the radiation leak at the quake-hit Fukushima nuclear plant, the East Asian countries show great concern over the quake's aftermaths.

According to a BBC article, Chinese authorities have found two Japanese tourists from Tokyo to have high levels of radiation. The Chinese government says they were sent to a specialist hospital following tests on their luggage and clothes that detected radiation levels "seriously exceeding limits". However, it remains unclear how the two may have become contaminated as neither traveller is reported to have been within 240km (150 miles) of the Fukushima plant. Also, the Chinese news agency, Xinhua, has reported that abnormal radiation levels have been detected on a ship coming from Japan to Xiamen port in Fujian province. (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12857544)

This article shows how China is aware and highly attentive of the potential consequences Japan's earthquake and radiation leak will have on China. Being one of Japan's closest regional neighbor, China understandably fears the negative effects the natural disaster might have on its own nation. It will be interesting to follow up on the reactions of the Chinese in allowing the Japanese to come into China.

-Sarah

Podcast: Western media bias against China

I came upon this interesting podcast while doing research for the first paper a few weeks ago. Many Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans feel like victims of Western media bias. Back in 2008, even I felt like there was an inordinate amount of bias in reporting the Tibetian unrest and the Beijing Olympic Games.

This discussion acknowledges that a certain amount of bias against China exists in Western media. However, it also points out that this bias isn't necessarily created intentionally. For example, there is often miscommunication between the correspondent reporting in China and the editor at headquarters in the home country. The headlines and wording of articles are chosen by the editor for dramatic effect but don't always reflect the true nature of the story, misleading audiences and introducing a negative, biased view.

A few other causes are discussed more in depth in the podcast. From an objective point of view, I found it extremely informative. And as a Chinese American who has personally felt China being victimized by American media, the discussion appeased me by presenting the account from multiple new perspectives. It opened my eyes and made me realize that it's naive, if not a little egocentric, to feel victimized by the media. The media isn't "out to get" anyone - extracting the most exciting and eye-catching elements of a story is simply the nature of news.

Download the podcast to your ipod...it's definitely worth a listen!

-Annie-