[in translation]
Over the past few days, the media are expressing their gratitude to the National People's Congress' Standing Committee for eliminating the article on allowing the local governments to fine the media for "breaking discipline to report on suddenly breaking incidents" to "the sum of 50,000 yuan or more but not more than 100,000 yuan." But from another angle, this article actually does not need to be removed because there are more advantages to have it there.
There are two reasons for saying so. First, this is a predictable deal which is actually worthwhile. If we treat the newspapers and magazines as an enterprise, we can calculate the investment and the return. According to the previously proposed article of law, if the media did not obey the orders from the relevant government officials and "unilaterally" reported the truth about the suddenly breaking incident, their revenue will definitely increase several times over. The intangible results include the respect of their peers in the industry and the love and esteem from their readers. The directly observable results are the increase in rising circulation and the increase in advertising income. The 50,000 yuan (or 100,000 yuan at the most) fine is basically just a half-page color advertisement in the newspaper. For most of the media in China today, this amount of fine is a pittance. Based upon this accounting idea, the law article would give a great deal of freedom for the media to report on suddenly breaking incidents -- the media will just be paying a relatively small sum money to make news reports.
Secondly, the fine can even be haggled. When the government fines the media, it is an administrative fine. If the media is dissatisfied, it can appeal and ask for a review by the next level of the government. If the media is still dissatisfied, it can appeal to the People's Court. But this kind of administrative case will draw the attention of other media and get extensive coverage. With the public pressure on, the relevant department may just let the case slip instead. Now the returns for the media to report "without approval" become even bigger, while the costs are almost zero.
But if you think about it more, you would know that the media don't really care about the several tens of thousand yuan in fines. Any legally stipulated fine is predictable and calculable, and there are legal channels through which to seek remedy. The media are really more afraid of those unpredictable and unfathomable personnel decisions, such as dismissing the reporters, replacing the chief editor, internal re-organization, ceasing publication, or even loss of personal freedom as in the Pengshui SMS case. These are many such cases in the past. As a result, this leads to the typical scenario: there is a suddenly breaking incident; only the national and out-of-province media could report on it whereas the local media can only publish some standard press releases written by the local government ...
Since taking the chief secretary's post in July 2005, Mr Hui has rarely been interviewed. Sources said that under arrangements for his interview with the students, the content had to be released by the government first. The students could then publish an article on Mr Hui's comments. This has led to claims that the administration has been trying to manipulate the interview. Leung Tin-wai, head of the journalism and communications department at Shue Yan University, said the interview was finalised early this month, and the questions were prepared by himself and students. Serenade Woo Lai-wan, who chairs the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said the arrangement for the interview reflected that the government wanted to deliver what it wanted.
The Chinese-language Hong Kong bloggers have some thoughts about that choice:
這不是寵幸，這是另一次就範 香港仔公國
這不是訪問，這是一次寵幸 聞.見.思.錄
肥龍之詭道 都是那些日子
很好的一課 頑石記
The fact is that when Rafael Hui leaves office, he can choose to give an interview or not. If he chooses to give an interview, he can do it with
(1) mainland Chinese media;
(2) overseas media;
(3a) Hong Kong 'opposition' media such as Apple Daily;
(3b) Hong Kong 'friendly' media such as ATV or Sing Tao;
(3c) Hong Kong non-mainstream media such as university journalism students.
So the (off-message) debate is about whether Rafael Hui was trying to manipulate some inexperienced student journalists and make a dictation without being subjected to any challenge. Really? Self-censorship occurs everyday at the mainstream media inside and outside of Hong Kong. In the real estate, finance, entertainment and consumer sections, the reports need to consider whether important people might be offended. That is a fact of life around the newsroom. So is it so shocking that politics is involved in this game too? The frontline reporters never get full control over what gets published ultimately.
The fact is that if any of the listed parties was selected by Rafael Hui, there will be some sort of post-interview debate over the choice. Why? Because he is known as the control freak who is only sparingly interviewed. But the Duke of Aberdeen blogger wondered:
Naturally, Rafael Hui made all these considerations for the purpose of obtaining the best media effect. To use a piece of officialese, he wanted "everything under control." Did he succeed? Or did he achieve the opposite? Did he consider that delivering the message in this manner might achieve the exact opposite? Maybe he has even totally lost the bad enough already media relationships? Rafael might have thought, "I'm leaving and I don't have to worry about you reporters anymore. I don't care what you reporters think of me. But I'm going to teach the pan-democrats a lesson before I leave."
When officials are promoted to the highest level of government (the so-called rule of Hong Kong by the Administrative Officers), they are often criticized for being maladroit at media public relations. It seemed merely to be a problem of bad public relations, and that is how the so-called political cosmeticians came along.
But the problem is not about the art of cosmetics. The real problem is the fact that the true faces of the domineering officials are incomparably ugly to the point where the best policy is for them to see nobody and say nothing. When they are too ugly, they go too far with the cosmetics or interviewing arrangments and that is how they get into trouble instead. When will they understand this?
The reality is that nobody is discussing the contents of the Rafael Hui interview. Everybody is buzzing about the choice of the interviewers.
Actress Cameron Diaz has issued an apology for travelling around Peru with a bag that had the words 'Serve the People!' printed on it. The slogan was communist icon Mao Zedong's most famous, and was in Chinese language.
Contactmusic.com quoted Thor Halvorssen, president of the Human Rights Foundation, as saying: 'It is bad enough that Diaz wears a bag quoting history's most prolific butcher, but what's even worse is that she is of Cuban heritage and really should know something about the true history of communism. There is a double standard here that boggles the mind: Had she worn a bag quoting Himmler or Pinochet, she would likely face career annihilation, and rightly so.'
The bag is considered fashionable in New York. But in Peru it is reminiscent of the Shining Path group whose armed campaign left almost 70,000 people dead.
Diaz said in a statement: 'I sincerely apologize to anyone I may have inadvertently offended. The bag was a purchase I made as a tourist in China, and I did not realize the potentially hurtful nature of the slogan printed on it.'
From Wikipedia:
A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (CVR), established by interim President Valentín Paniagua, found in a 2003 report that 69,280 people had died or disappeared – 22,507 fully identified as dead and 46,773 disappearances. Shining Path was estimated to be responsible for the death of 31,331 people. According to a summary of the report by Human Rights Watch, "Shining Path… killed about half the victims, and roughly one-third died at the hands of government security forces… The commission attributed some of the other slayings to a smaller guerrilla group and local militias. The rest remain unattributed."
...
We start by not ascribing to either Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the Costa Rica [Convention on Human Rights], but we have used their legal devices to unmask and denounce the old Peruvian state. . . . For us, human rights are contradictory to the rights of the people, because we base rights in man as a social product, not man as an abstract with innate rights. "Human rights" don't exist except for the bourgeoisie man, a position that was at the forefront of feudalism, like liberty, equality, and fraternity were advanced for the bourgeoisie of the past. But today, since the appearance of the proletariat as an organized class in the Communist Party, with the experience of triumphant revolutions, with the construction of socialism, new democracy and the dictatorship of the proletariat, it has been proven that human rights serve the oppressor class and the exploiters who run the imperialist and landowner-bureaucratic states. Bourgeois states in general. . . . Our position is very clear. We reject and condemn human rights because they are bourgeois, reactionary, counterrevolutionary rights, and are today a weapon of revisionists and imperialists, principally Yankee imperialists.
To what degree should the Chinese Communists be blamed for the excesses of the Shining Path (and this has nothing to with Cameron Diaz's handbag)? Well, the answer depends on which Chinese Communists do you mean? All Chinese Communists are not alike.
On one hand, they have plenty to do with it because the leader of Shining Path had plenty of contact with the Chinese Communists (see Al Jazeera):
The leader of the Shining Path was Abimail Guzman, a former philosophy professor and a devotee of Mao who visited China many times during the Cultural Revolution. ... Guzman became an adherent of the Gang of Four - the group of senior Chinese Communist Party figures, including Mao's wife, Jiang Qing, who advocated a fundamentalist brand of Maoism and were later blamed for many of the excesses of that period. ... In an interview with the Path's El-Diario newspaper in 1988, Guzman described how he was taught in China not only to build a political party, but also to carry out "ambushes, attacks, military movements, as well as how to assemble explosive devices". "For me it is an unforgettable example and experience, an important lesson, and a big step in my development - to have been trained in the highest school of Marxism the world has ever seen," he said of his time there.
On the other hand, they have nothing to do with it because President Gonzalo (=Abimail Guzman) hated them. This was how the Shinining Path introduced themselves to the Peruvian people in 1980 (Global Security).
Most Peruvians first heard of Sendero Luminoso when the citizens of Lima were confronted by the sight of dead dogs hanging from utility poles along the principal boulevard of the city. The carcasses were decorated with placards denouncing the "fascist dog of Deng Xiaoping" and praising the Chinese Gang of Four.
Related Link: No light, no law. Anthony Daniels, 11/5/1990, National Review.
While the mainland official media are giving blanket coverage on the incorporation of Hong Kong into the mainland ten years after its return, Southern Weekend (a member of the Southern Daily group that has been hailed as the leader in the reform of newspapers in China) has used an indirect and opaque method to break through the mainland public opinion taboo in order to showcase certain local Hong Kong features. It described the activities of the FLG in Hong Kong, it referred indirectly to the June 4th candlelight assembly in Victoria Park, it hinted that even though the "Hong Kong dream" may have evaporated under the shadow of government-business collusion, but it said that the Hong Kong's people prides -- the freedom of speech, political tolerance and the spirit of the rule of law -- continue to exist.
... In the latest issue of Southern Weekend, there is an article titled <The Hong Kong that you may not know: The rules are stronger than the hidden rules>. The article introduces "the aspects of Hong Kong that mainlanders may not know about." The article opens with a description of the FLG which has been defined as an evil cult on the mainland: "You step out of the Hung Hom train station and you will be greeted by a mass of banners. This is enough to scare a mainlander coming to Hong Kong for the first time. At Star Ferry, someone will distribute flyers and booklets to you. In Hong Kong, you can see these dissidents everywhere but you rarely see them in the mainland." The article does not spell out that these dissidents are FLG members. But any mainlander who has been to Hong Kong will know what this means.
Concerning the annual assembly on June 4th, the article says: "On the first Monday of June ... when you step out of the MTR station in Causeway Bay, there are Legislators using their microphones to push their ideals. Various political parties or social organizations are soliciting donations enthusiastically." Although the article only describes the atmosphere without being specific, the date, the location and the Legislators speaking via microphones clearly point to the June 4th candlelight assembly.
The mainland official media are praising the high degree of economic autonomy and the continued economic development of Hong Kong. But Southern Weekend cites Hong Kong cultural critic Leung Man-tao to say that the "Hong Kong dream" in which it is possible to succeed through effort alone may have gone away for good: "Nowadays, even taxi drivers curse out Li Ka-shing for being a bastard who is into monopolization and government-business collusion. In the past, the people of Hong Kong feel that rich people relied on themselves. Now, they are beginning to hate the rich people."
On June 26, the Chinese version of World of Warcraft has been updated to the "Before the Storm" edition. This version had been running in the United States and Europe for one year already, and it took that long for the Chinese version to appear.
However, Chinese WoW players were outraged by certain changes in the game as a result of the updates. In the old version, the dead souls were turned into skeletons. In the new version, the dead souls have flesh and body (see photograph below for comparison of the same character).
In the old version, the dead were strewn around as skeletons. In the new version, the dead are represented by graves with headstones.
The reporter interviewed the Chinese operator of WoW and received the 'official' response: "The revision of the images of the dead souls is based upon the situation and policy requirements in China. These small changes were made to promote a healthy and harmonious Internet gaming environment. It should not detract from the users' enjoyment of the game." As for specific questions (such as the skeletons), the person said that it was hard to respond (and "the reporter should appreciate that").
Some users think that this one-sided interpretation of "harmony" by the relevant government departments led to actions that resulted in a huge reaction that was even worse for the sake of "harmony." In one public opinion poll with more than 20,000 votes, more than 90% of the users opposed the revision strongly.
How not to build democracy? The election of village officials at Daxingzhuang village, Songzhuang town, Tongzhou district, Beijing city has given us some clues. A week before the election, there came the phenomenon of open sales of voter cards ... According to the villagers, the price for voter cards "rose like a stock share with several changes a day." The highest offer is now 600 yuan ...
Some might say that this mutually acceptable arrangement "maximizes" the interest on both sides. The villagers selling their votes are interested in cashing in immediately while the candidates buying the votes are making a long-term investment. Yet, anyone with any knowledge of democracy will know that this type of activity will place the entire society into greater jeopardy. Democratic rights are political rights that can be neither deprived nor transferred. When the voter card becomes a stock share that can be bought and sold at will, then democratic politics become a black market that is controlled by the vote buyers ...
We also note another small detail. Compared to the trading of voter cards, even worse are the village cadres "confiscating voter cards for no apparent reason." Faced with these kinds of daylight robberies, some villagers have resisted by writing messages on their doors with chalk: "If you want to take away my voter card, you must pay 600 yuan. This is not negotiable." Maybe this is the most basic as well as most hapless "transaction between power and money." But here, the money is only a small favor but the power is the "civil right."
Why are villagers so willing to sell their voter cards in their hands? Some people find it easy to offer the "reason that everybody knows about" -- the peasants "are greedy for the small sum of money" and are "short-sighted." ... If we dig deeper, we will discover that this so-called "reason" is actually the consequence of another reason -- in our world, the voters do not see any advantage worth more than 600 yuan from "democracy." In other words, the real problem that we have to confront is that "democracy is not worth 600 yuan."
When the legal system is non-existent, democracy is meaningless. When village officials can walk into a villager's home and take their voter card, the villagers lose faith in democracy. The villagers figure that even if they don't sell their votes, other voters will. In this game-theoretic contest, it is the wealthy vote-buyers who get the last laugh.
... Since democracy has become a trading activity with the wealth people and since the voters regard their ballots as waste paper, then 600 yuan is a good price. In that sense, there is an inner logic for the villagers to make the 'short-sighted' choice of selling their votes ...
How do you stop this? The first thing is to make the villagers believe in democracy. If the voters think that their votes have nothing to do with their lives and the act of voting is a pointless participatory act, then there is no hope for democratic elections. Even if we can find some way of convincing the voters not to sell their votes, we may encounter the embarrassing situation in which nobody shows up to cast their votes.
With the confirmation that this was a rumor, certain web portals began to delete the posts that carried the rumor. But the deletion of the posts created greater netizen anger and the criticisms became more vehement. The Tengzhou publicity department organized people to make large number of posts to clarify, but their voices were quickly drowned out.
"There was nothing that we could do now. We are too small compared to the hundreds of millions of netizens out there," said an official with the Tengzhou city publicity department.
In the case 5-1/2 years ago in which Ma Chiu-sing threatened to poison supermarket foods, it was believed that this was an extreme action that he took in order to express his dissatisfaction with Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa. But his background did not contain any indication of extremism. When he graduated from high school, he joined the Department of Corrections and then left for no reason. He learned hair-dressing from his elder brother and joined the auxiliary police. In 1992, he started his own hair salon. He was involved in real estate speculation like many of his fellow citizens. It is doubtful whether he committed the crime for political extremism.
The fact that Ma Chiu-shing joined the Department of Corrections and the auxiliary police shows that he has an interest in the discipilinary forces, but it was hard to understand why he left those forces. During the past two decades, he kept switching jogs and this has to make people wonder if he has some other identity.
According to information, the Political Department of the Hong Kong Royal Police during the British colonial administration had many special agents burrowed in various social strata in Hong Kong. These people are responsible for collecting information and carrying out special missions. Furthermore, Beijing, Taiwan and even western countries also planted large number of special agents in Hong Kong. Superficially, these agents looked just like other citizens. After the return of Hong Kong to China, some of these people went into retirement but some are still conducting underground activities on behalf of various political forces and they will carry out sabotage following orders at various times.
In reality, some people speculated that Ma Chiu-sing and even the infamous "devil policeman" Tsui Poko may not be those types of people. But these speculations can neither be confirmed nor denied ...
Some time within the next month or so the government will issue a report outlining three general options for bringing full democracy to Hong Kong. Tsang has made 60% public support the target for any measure that he will push forward. But Hong Kong's desire for full democracy is strong, and it is likely that more than one proposal will surpass the 60% barrier. He admitted as much in a recent interview. Earlier this week a poll by Hong Kong University indicated that 57% of the population supports a proposal by the pan-democrats on choosing the next Chief Executive. Tsang will be forced to choose which plan he backs from several equally popular proposals. The task of explaining why one is better than the other will not be easy. And the stakes are high. Tsang, in a notably poor choice of words, said he would find a "final solution" for bringing full democracy to Hong Kong. Whether he can match that pledge or not will be the performance review that really matters.
Now I have not cited that HKU POP poll because it is so weird in terms of the questions. I thought that it was going to create more problems than not if I cited it. But now that the survey has been cited, it is probably necessary to address it. So here are the exact survey questions and the corresponding results:
Q1. Regarding the Chief Executive election in 2012, it is proposed that 400 directly elected district councillors should be added to the existing 800-member Election Committee, adding up to a total of approximately 1,200 committee members. The number of subscribers required should be 50% regardless of the sector they belong to. The Chief Executive should ultimately be elected by universal suffrage. Do you support or oppose this proposal?
Support: 57%
Half-half: 17%
Oppose: 14%
Don't know/hard to say: 13%Q2. Regarding the Legislative Council election in 2012, it is proposed that a mixed election model would be adopted, whereby half of the seats would be returned by a "single seat single vote" simple majority system. The other half of the seats would be returned through elections by the "proportional representation system" so that each voter can cast two votes. Do you support or oppose this proposal?
Support: 45%
Half-half: 18%
Oppose: 15%
Don't know/hard to say: 22%Q4. It is proposed that a sort of prior vetting mechanism would be added to the Chief Executive election to secure the acceptance of candidates by the Central government. Then the Chief Executive would be elected by the public on a "one-person-one-vote" basis. Do you support or oppose to this kind of prior vetting mechanism?
Support: 45%
Half-half: 18%
Oppose: 25%
Don't know/hard to say: 11%Q5. There is another proposal that a prior communication channel would be added to the Chief Executive election, instead of a prior vetting mechanism. That means those who would like to stand for the Chief Executive election had to communicate with the Central government first through this sort of channel before they could turn to be candidates, lest the Chief Executive selected by the public would gain no acceptance from the Central government. Do you support or oppose to the setting up of this sort of prior communication channel?
Support: 52%
Half-half: 14%
Oppose: 25%
Don't know/hard to say: 9%On Q1, I personally got thoroughly confused because a number of different issues were brought up in a package. I will say that I cannot reduce to this survey question to just: "The Chief Executive should ultimately be elected by universal suffrage" which has a 57% support level. For example, if I am completely for 100% direct election of the Chief Executive, why should I be kidnapped to support the addition of 400 district councilors into the Election Committee? I don't even want any stinking Election Committee -- I want a direct election! Get it!!!???
On top of this, I have to add the nuances introduced in Q4 an Q5. Those responses just do not match my understanding of free and open universal suffrage -- the people of Hong Kong are apparently willing to accept interference from the central government about their choice for the Chief Executive! However, I am not accepting this as truth because I need more evidence besides a very complicated and convoluted survey questionnaire.
Q1. Hong Kong has been under "One County, Two Systems" for ten years. Overall, do you feel that the people of Hong Kong are better, worse or the same compared to before the return? (Base: Taiwan residents)
Better: 17% (compared to 5% in TVBS survey conducted in June 1997)
The same: 34% (compared to 54% in June 1997)
Worse: 16% (compared to 33% in June 1997)
Don't know: 33% (compared to 8% in June 1997)Q2. Overall, do you think that the economic development of Hong Kong now is better, worse or the same compared to before the return? (Base: Taiwan residents)
Better: 32% (compared to 12% in June 1997)
The same: 31% (compared to 51% in June 1997)
Worse: 17% (compared to 29% in June 1997)
Don't know: 21% (compared to 8% in June 1997)Q3. Overall, do you think the development of democracy in Hong Kong now is better, worse or the same compared to before the return? (Base: Taiwan residents)
Better: 10%
The same: 40%
Worse: 30%
Don't know: 20%Q4. Ten years after the return, do you think that "One Country, Two Systems" has been successfully implemented in Hong Kong? (Base: Taiwan residents)
Very successful: 4%
Somewhat successful: 34%
More or less okay: 9%
Somewhat unsuccessful: 13%
Very unsuccessful: 10%
Hard to say: 31%Q5. Under "One Country, Two Systems," how confident are you about the future economic development of Hong Kong?
Hong Kong residents:
Very confident: 17%
Somewhat confident: 51%
Fair: 18%
Somewhat not confident: 8%
Very not confident: 3%
Don't know: 3%Taiwan residents:
Very confident: 9%
Somewhat confident: 32%
Fair: 9%
Somewhat not confident: 13%
Very not confident: 5%
Don't know: 32%Q6. Under "One Country, Two Systems," how confident are you about the future development of democracy in Hong Kong?
Hong Kong residents:
Very confident: 8%
Somewhat confident: 37%
Fair: 24%
Somewhat not confident: 18%
Very not confident: 7%
Don't know: 6%Taiwan residents:
Very confident: 5%
Somewhat confident: 27%
Fair: 7%
Somewhat not confident: 21%
Very not confident: 16%
Don't know: 24%Q7. Overall, do you think "One Country, Two Systems" is suitable for Taiwan?
Hong Kong residents:
Suitable: 52%
Not suitable: 33%
Don't know: 15%Taiwan residents:
Suitable: 21%
Not suitable: 53%
Don't know: 26%Q8. Do you agree with setting up a "One Country, Two Systems" relationship between Taiwan and mainland China (that is, according to the Hong Kong model)? (Base: Taiwan residents)
Agree: 23% (compared to 36% in June 1997)
Disagree: 55% (compared to 54% in June 1997)
Don't know: 21% (compared to 10% in June 1997)Q9. If there is a choice, would you rather Hong Kong be a British colony or a Special Administrative Region of China?
Hong Kong residents:
British colony: 31%
China SAR: 41%
Don't know: 28%Taiwan residents:
British colony: 38%
China SAR: 36%
Don't know: 26%Q10. Overall, how do you feel about the mainland Chinese government?
Hong Kong residents:
Very good: 7%
Somewhat good: 37%
So-so: 43%
Somewhat bad: 9%
Very bad: 3%
No opinion: 1%Taiwan residents:
Very good: 2%
Somewhat good: 9%
So-so: 20%
Somewhat bad: 23%
Very bad: 28%
No opinion: 17%Q11. Overall, how do you feel about the Hong Kong SAR government?
Hong Kong residents:
Very good: 7%
Somewhat good: 46%
So-so: 40%
Somewhat bad: 5%
Very bad: 1%
No opinion: 1%Taiwan residents:
Very good: 2%
Somewhat good: 22%
So-so: 16%
Somewhat bad: 14%
Very bad: 8%
No opinion: 38%Q12. Overall, how do you feel about the Taiwan government?
Hong Kong residents:
Very good: 1%
Somewhat good: 4%
So-so: 28%
Somewhat bad: 38%
Very bad: 21%
No opinion: 8%Taiwan residents:
Very good: 8%
Somewhat good: 13%
So-so: 17%
Somewhat bad: 19%
Very bad: 31%
No opinion: 11%Q13. Self-identity of the people of Taiwan over time. [Explanation: The green line is for "Taiwanese"; the dark blue line is for "Taiwanese and Chinese"; the purple line is for "Chinese." The dates (YY/MM/DD) in the series are counted from the founding year of the Republic of China (1911). For example, 96/6/15 is June 15, 2007.]
I have the habit that no matter where I go, I will try to chat with the local young people in order to understand the local mores and make friends.
I have met some students from Taiwan here. When I speak to them, many people are polite but there seems to be an invisible barrier like the Taiwan strait. Finally, there was an open clash after which I seem to understand the source of that estrangement.
On that day, I came across some Taiwan students at the student cafeteria. One of them is the a classmate in the reading class. She always wears to smile and speaks lightly. I asked her what she thought about the diplomatic wars across the strait. She said that China is too big for Taiwan to fight. From a practical viewpoint, I agree with Ma Ying-jeou's idea that Taiwan can have more international space by negotiating with China. But how come Taiwan can only join the WTO and the Olympics but nothing else? This is no doubt the disastrous result of the DPP's "flames of war everywhere" diplomatic approach.
France had just held its election, and I said that I wanted to go and observe the 2008 and 2012 election in Taiwan. I joked that if the DPP were to win again and continue down the present path, it is hard to say whether there will be war or peace in 2012.
"War? You get lost!" A woman on the right hand side screamed at me. "Why are you sitting next to me? We are all Taiwanese people here and you are the only Chinese," she continued.
"Where do you think you are? This is a university student cafeteria in France. Besides, was I talking to you before?" I told her. She had nothing to say and eventually left.
Are young people in Taiwan unwilling to sit down and discuss these problems with mainland people of the same age, just as the media said? I think most of them are not like that. If we won't think about the future across the strait and the future of Taiwan, who will?
Since the political systems and the social developments are different, many mainland Chinese young people admire the freedom of speech and freedom of press in Taiwan. But if the result of these freedoms is bigotry, isolation and intolerance, then it is hard to say whether this is the failure of democracy or personal failure.
Baed upon my previous professional experience, the mainland media carry much more coverage about the world than the media in Taiwan. This made people think about the large issues of society and create a more open attitude. This is basically not the image of mainland China that the Taiwanese people get from their own media. We are willing to understand Taiwan, so why shouldn't the young people of Taiwan be willing to understand the mainland?
Blood and tears are flowing from the case of Shanxi brick kiln slaves. Among the confusing information, I read the following item: the wife of the kiln owner said that "they knew nothing about the lives of the kiln workers" and "they were deceived by the subcontractor." (as reported in the <Yanzhao Metro News>)/
The person who said those words is the wife of the brick kiln owner Wang Bingbing, who is the son of the party secretary in Caosheng village, Guangshengsi town, Hongdong county, Shanxi province.
In this photograph, Wang Bingbing's wife certainly looks infinitely better than those kiln slaves ... According to her logic, everyone in the chain of logic may be innocent. The kiln owner, the subcontractor and even those henchmen who killed or crippled the kiln slaves have their excuses. The officials at the various local government levels are also innocent and have no responsibilities whatsoever.
Let us suppose that the daughter-in-law of the senior cadre in Caosheng village knew nothing. But she must have seemed the tragic sight of the kiln slaves in the media (newspapers and television). If such is the case, how could she remain so calm as to show no trace of emotion? Even more shocking than the conditions of the kiln slaves is the calm expression of the daughter-in-law of the senior cadre in Caosheng village.
With respect to the case of the kiln slaves, public opinion is directed towards the local government officials and the problems with the system in general. The kiln slaves revealed a severe wound in the economic rise of the nation, as lauded as "China Rising" by TIME magazine ...
Perhaps we can only blame this on the price that has to be paid during the process of modernization. But this price is too heavy. None of us can make this kind of disaster disappear immediately. We can only pray that it will be less -- a lot less
... Over the past several days, something has been going through my mind ... I made a hypothesis: Suppose I was born in Caosheng village (Shanxi province) and my father was the village party secretary. Could I become a kiln owner? Would my wife calmly and shamelessly stand in front of the public and present the worst aspects of human nature?
I am not sure. I am really not sure ...
According to the police, at around 11:30pm last night, the police set up a temporary inspection post in Taipei city. They observed a male with a handbag who attempted to elude the police. When the police officers moved towards the male, he tossed his handbag and fled. The police gave pursuit and the man took out a gun and fired seven shots. The police called for reinforcement and had the man cornered in a parking lot. As the police approached, the man fired several shots while the police returned fire. When the man saw that he could not possibly escape, he shot himself in the temple. The police checked the identification on his person and confrimed that it was Lan Chia-wei, who is the alleged assassin of Taipei county councilor Wu Shan-chiu. The handbag that was discarded contained a large amount of cash.
Of course, conspiracy theorists will always wonder whether this was the right person or a dupe. Here are the photographs -- the suspect as captured on closed circuit television is shown on the left and the ID photo of the suspect is shown on the right. It is the same person, right? Or are you a conspiracy theorist?
哈中反中不如知中 (It is better to know China instead of just loving or hating it).In direct contrast to German philosophy which descends from heaven to earth, here we ascend from earth to heaven. That is to say, we do not set out from what men say, imagine, conceive, nor from men as narrated, thought of, imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in the flesh. We set out from real, active men, and on the basis of their real life-process we demonstrate the development of the ideological reflexes and echoes of this life-process. The phantoms formed in the human brain are also, necessarily, sublimates of their material life-process, which is empirically verifiable and bound to material premises. Morality, religion, metaphysics, all the rest of ideology and their corresponding forms of consciousness, thus no longer retain the semblance of independence. They have no history, no development; but men, developing their material production and their material intercourse, alter, along with this their real existence, their thinking and the products of their thinking. Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life. In the first method of approach the starting-point is consciousness taken as the living individual; in the second method, which conforms to real life, it is the real living individuals themselves, and consciousness is considered solely as their consciousness.
One way to think about this is that the Hong Kong citizen's understanding of China cannot be imposed from the outside through 'civic lessons.' Instead, their understanding depends on their interaction with mainland China and its people. To borrow the slogan from the famous Hong Kong blog on Japan,
The inclusion of the only patriotic loyalist in the new ruling team, Central Policy Unit adviser Tsang Tak-sing - a former journalist - will ensure greater integration with the mainland and cross-border cooperation. But his main job will be to push ahead the social enterprises pledged by Tsang during his election campaign.
There is much more in the Chinese-language newspapers about Tsang Tak-sing's history. The following episode is most frequently mentioned (see Apple Daily, for example):
Tsang Tak-sing was a student at the English-language high school St. Paul's College. On September 28, 1967, Tsang distributed 375 inflammatory flyers that basically said: "The British colonial administration in Hong Kong has oppressed our compatriots politically; they will not allow us to love our country; they used brutal methods to effect fascist suppression of our patriotic compatriots; they also implement an educational system that turns out slaves." The police received a report and entered the school campus to investigate. They took Tsang Tak-sing down to the police station.
"At the time, he was distributing the prefect's armband when he distributed the flyers. A student saw him and reported to the priest. The priest called the police. Many students witnessed his arrest," said a St. Paul's alumnus. According to this source, 18-year-old Tsang Tak-sing was taken back to the police station where he could have released if he would sign a document to say that he was sorry. Tsang refused and he was physically assaulted by the police and subsequently charged.
... About a couple of weeks later, Tsang Tak-sing was charged in court. The prosecutor read out the charges and Tsang pleaded not guilty. The judge found Tsang guilty and sentenced him to two years in imprison. Tsang's father attended the court and the judge asked him if he wanted to say anything. Tsang's father only said: "My son did the right thing." In the verdict, the judge wrote that Tsang was being stupid. As a student with an excellent academic record and ready to enter university, he has just destroyed his own career and he had no one else to blame.
The Apple Daily provided some background context about the 1967 leftist riots in which there were strikes, demonstrations, riots and "pineapples" (improvised explosive devices) that led to 51 deaths and more than 800 injuries (many of whom were innocent citizens). But that is the background. Was Tsang Tak-sing thrown in jail for two years because of his personal action, or for the background?
老左正傳 might be translated as: "The Life of an Old Leftist" and its former English-language title was "Call Me Left." For the movie review, read lovehkfilm.com. Here is the bottom line:"Mr. Cinema", a Hong Kong film starring Anthony Wong, Karen Mok, Teresa Mo and Ronald Cheng, will debut in late June. The film aims to reflect the persevering spirit of the Hong Kong people by telling the story of a Hong Kong projectionist's family over a 40-year period from 1967 to 2007. Veteran actor Anthony Wong plays the part of the projectionist, Teresa Mo and Ronald Cheng his wife and son, and Karen Mok as Ronald Cheng's girlfriend.
This is very misleading because this film was not about a typical Hong Kong citizen. The original Chinese-language title
Basically, if you're looking for political and historical accountability, then Mr. Cinema will absolutely disappoint, and could even be viewed as irresponsible filmmaking. However, if you're just looking for something that's touching, bittersweet, and feels uniquely Hong Kong, then Mr. Cinema is a quality time at the movies.
Is it too much to say that a movie is 'irresponsible' with respect to 'political and historical accountability'? That is because it is impossible to discuss the evolution of a Hong Kong leftist without certain landmark events and one of these (and arguably the most significant contemporary one) was omitted. More from lovehkfilm.com.
Mr. Cinema is very guilty of something that we'll call "selective history". Generally, the film portrays history accurately, using it as a way to define its characters and their growth. However, one event that greatly affected Hong Kong goes suspiciously unmentioned: the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. The reason for the omission is obvious; after all, this is a film meant to celebrate the Hong Kong-China reunion, and nearly twenty years later Tiananmen Square is still a touchy subject in the Mainland. The censors can breathe easy; in Mr. Cinema, the event is ignored, and judging by character reaction, may never have taken place at all. That's a bit of a problem. Given Zhou's ardent desire to visit Tiananmen, and the film's running joke of how he never finds the chance to visit, the omission comes off as a disservice. Frankly, to gain a complete portrait of Zhou Heung-Kong and his family, Tiananmen Square needs to be there. We're getting a deliberately watered down history in Mr. Cinema; the Hong Kong on display is more than just rose-colored - it may be willingly blind.
The significance of Tiananmen Square for the Hong Kong leftists can be shown in terms of what the movie showed. For a long time, whenever major events occurred in China (e.g. the fall of the Gang of Four, etc), the leftists met and were debriefed by their leaders (e.g. Xinhua people who directed the underground party) about the correct line. With respect to Tiananmen Square, even those leaders were marching in Hong Kong themselves.
He came from Hengying village, Xizhou county, Henan province. The village was an ordinary one in which the families owned farming cattle. Heng Tinghan was the first one to come up with the idea of buying and selling farming cattle. He was in charge of the sales activities while his younger brother was the enforcer who collected bad debts.
At some time after 1995, the cattle business was in decline. So Heng Tinghan looked instead to the labor subcontracting business at the Shanxi brick kilns. He began to con local Henen workers to go work in Shanxi. He told the villagers that he had powerful connections in Shanxi where labor subcontracting is a hugely profitable busienss. He promised to help other villagers to become subcontractors. This was how it came to be that most illegal brick kilns owners and subcontractors in Shanxi hailed from Xizhou county (Henan province).
Late night on January 29, 2007, Shanxi Datong city Public Security Bureau Traffic Police Squad southern suburban team assistant instructor Song Jianzhong killed city Public Security Bureau Political Department director Li Huimin at home. Afterwards, the streets were filled with the rumor that Song committed the murder because he paid money to buy a government position but never got any result. Today, the rumor has been confirmed: The Shanxi provincial Procuratorate said that an important reason why Song Jianzhong killed Li Huimin was that Li took 180,000 yuan in bribes from Song but failed to keep the promise to promote Song (see Southern Metropolis Daily, June 22).
Spending money to buy government positions is nothing new. Having a dispute over the failure to get a position after payment is nothing new either. But the loss of a life might be new. Even so, I 'm really not particularly interested in that. But I think that if Song Jianzhong spent 180,000 yuan for a minor position and still failed, then would you think that nobody else has bought their government positions? No way. Now that Li Huimin has been killed for selling government positions, then do you think that nobody else will do that? No way.
But I am still very interested in this story. The reason for my interest is that this story tells me: "After the murder, the streets were filled the rumor that Song committed the murder because he paid money to buy a government position but never got any result. Today, the rumor has been confirmed." But if we look at the initial reports about this case, you should learn that there are actually other rumors associated with this case.
For example, on January 31, <Chongqing Evening News> cited the description in Xinhua and <Democracy and Legal System Times>: A Datong public security bureau militia police officer told this reporter: "The Political Department inside the Public Security Bureau is a crucial department in charge of the promotions/demotions, hiring and transfers of the militia police. Ever since Li Huimin became director, personnel decisions were based 'solely upon money.' People who should be demoted are not demoted; people who should be promoted are not promoted. There were strong feelings among the militia police. The large number of vicious crimes in Datong is largely related to the mismanagement of police personnel."
So I have to think: If the first rumor has been confirmed, then is this other rumor also true? Shouldn't the relevant department investigate whether other people in the Datong Public Security Bureau also bought their positions from Li Huimin? Of course, it would be even better if they can investigate just how Li Huimin dared to sell positions!
... On April 27, Henan youth Zhu Guanghui was rescued from an illegal brick kiln in Yongji city. On his way home, he was pulled off a bus by an inspector at the Yongji city Department of Labor Supervision and then presented to work at a different illegal brick kiln. The inspector even charged Zhu Guanghui 300 yuan as commission. At the end of May, Zhu Guanghui went with the Henan TV Metro Channel reporter to confront this inspector at the Yongji city Department of Labor Supervision. The camera recorded this very embarrassed inspector named Feng attempting to return the 300 yuan to the boy.
On that afternoon, Zhu Guanghui went out to photocopy materials for other Henan parents looking for their children but he never came back. His own father arrived in Yongji later that day, but never got to see his own son.
After this news was published, the fate of Zhu Guanghui drew a great deal of public attention. Where was he? It was very worrisome. On the evening of June 18, Zhu Guanghui finally made it back to his home in Pingdingshan (Henan). He was interviewed by the Southern Weekend reporter via telephone.
According to Zhu Guanghui, he went to get photocopies that afternoon. On the way, he encountered the inspector named Feng again. Feng was driving a car. He offered Zhu more money in compensation and tricked him to get omyp the car. Then he drove the car directly to another brick kiln in Yuncheng city. Zhu Guangji recalled that a local street sign had said "Yanhu district."
One week later, during the large-scale clean-up of illegal brick kilns across all of Shanxi province, Zhu Guanghui was liberated for one more time. He was taken by the Yuncheng public security bureau officers to the Criminal Investigation Squad in Yongji city. There, Zhu Guanghui saw inspector Feng (a man with glasses and way hair) in handcuffs. "He warned me not to talk to reporters," said Zhu Guanghui.
As of now, the Shanxi police have done an outstanding shop in cleaning up the illegal brick kilns and saving trapped migrant workers. Several hundred migrants workers have been freed and Zhu Guanghui was one of them. He has received a total of 1,500 yuan in compensation from the central government and the local Department of Labor Supervision.
But Zhu Guanghui could not hide his hatred for that inspector. "Why did he sell me away twice?" Zhu Guanghui said that this inspector has been reclaimed by the Department of Labor Supervision. He said that he did not resist during the process "because he did not dare resist."
On the evening of June 19, the Southern Weekend reporter called Yongji city Department of Labor Supervision party secretary Zhang. He categorically denied that Zhu Guanghui had been sold and that there was no inspector by the name of Feng. When the reporter told him that there was a television video, he said: "But that was only in profile (and not from the front)." He emphasized that Zhu Guanghui is already 16 years old "and therefore not a child laborer." Then he promptly hung up the telephone and cut off any follow-up questions from the reporter.
On June 11, Mr. Qiao of Hunan called the China Telecom helpline about his problem with Internet access on his newly re-installed computer. He was informed that he had to proceed to Vnet.cn to download the latest software.
Mr. Qiao went to Vnet.cn and saw that there was a link to "Adult Movie Studio" from the log-in page. When he clicked on the link, he was taken to a page with large quantities of obscene, indecent, violent and pirated movies (which can be accessed for 30 yuan).
China Telecom is supposedly to be developing a "Green Movement" to promote the rejection of harmful contents such as pornography and violence. Mr. Qiao's public complaint points out that China Telecom is a hypocrite. In addition, if the Ministry of Public Security is going after pornographic websites, then what about the biggest one of them all?
According to a person with the Hunan office of China Telecom, "Vnet.cn is a service content provider, whereas China Telecom is a platform. The content provider places the service contents onto the platform. China Telecom only takes care of the technical implementation. The contents are reviewed by the relevant government departments and China Telecom only provides assistance."
Is China Telecom's argument acceptable? If you think that it is, then why can't all the Chinese BBS forums, news portals and blog service providers invoke the same argument: "We are just platforms and the contents should be reviewed by the relevant government departments instead." Why do their administrators have to act as censors? Furthermore, China Telecom obviously derives revenue as the platform -- the more popular these adult movie pages are, the more bandwidth consumption and the more income to China Telecom. Therefore, it is an interested platform that derives significant profits.
After the Shanxi "Kiln Slaves" affair, we gained a deeper understanding of the evil in men's hearts and the plight of the struggling masses. After seeing mining disasters, forced relocations, government officials insulting public opinion, clashes between urban poor people and city administrators, etc, I keep thinking that we have to bounce back up because we have reached the bottom. In the eighteen levels of hell, haven't we taken the down escalator to reach the basement? Solzenitzen said, "The depth of sufferings is the height of human glory." But I do not believe that. When seeds are buried too deep into the ground, they will die. Humans too.
Yet, the aftermath of the "Kiln Slaves" affair led to two more developments that truly astounded people. So far, you have only seen the beginning. According to the recollections and descriptions of some people, the "coerced labor" in the Shanxi brick kilns have traversed more than a decade in time and covered the entire province in scope. Even more disheartening was that we saw the usually crisis public relations management after the affair was exposed. This turned the matter of the "concentration camp" of "kiln slaves" into a straightforward matter of "illegal employment" which can be solved by paying the back wages. All the cruel butcheries (such as knocking someone unconscious and throwing him in the grinder to make minced meat (as reported on June 18, in Zhaoyan Metro News)) was turned into urban legend with a light repartee: "Show me the proof!"
Now that is even more frightening. When "kiln slavery" becomes only "illegal employment," then what can possibly break the law? Has our nation become a zero-crime nation? It is very hard to accept that utopia has arrived so quickly. Fortunately, this idiocy was corrected. In the June 20th Xinhua report, Premier Wen Jiabao held a regular State Council at which the Shanxi provincial officials made self-examinations: "At the meeting, it was pointed out that the Shanxi 'illegal brick kilns' involved not only serious illegal employment, but there are also serious criminal activities such as underground kidnapping gangs, illegal imprisonment, coerced labor, child labor, intentionally inflicting body injuries and murder. This incident must be thoroughly investigated and severely dealt with; the illegal activities and criminal organizations must be stopped; all the victims must be rescued; the criminals must be punished; the legal rights of the people (especially minors and mentally handicapped persons) must be protected; social justice must be upheld." This position should be more convincing.
If the state still only wants to call this "illegal employment," then our entire society may collapse because that definition is simply too far removed from humanity -- it creates the impression that there is nothing one won't do in order to protect the interests of the criminals. When the Internet exposed the "kiln slaves" affair to the world, those government officials who don't like public opinion monitoring as well as those who have interests involved in the case obviously tried to cover up. They even said that these were "lies intended to mislead the people" and that it was too severe to even consider the case to be "illegal employment." Actually, wasn't a cadre who sold a slave back to another brick kiln "retained in office"? It is not easy to train a cadre ...
Existing social problems are often uncovered by common people. Such problems are not likely to be covered up totally. In a good society under the rule of law, the common people discover problems and the problems are solved; if the problems are not solved, the officials will be solved -- the people will vote them out. But when the common people discover problems and the officials let the problems persist, then this is not a normal society. From the recent Xiamen chemical plant to the Shanxi "kiln slaves," some ordinary citizens spoke out and then everybody realized the seriousness of the problems. At the same time, this showed how bad things had been under the lower-level government officials. In this standoff, it would be a good opportunity to build a "good society" if the senior decision-makers lean towards the side of the people.
The change in the language was first noted in the four-page coverage of the case in Shanxi Evening News. The main article carried the headline: "Our migrant worker brothers have warm, welcoming homes everywhere." This article said that in Shanxi, the migrant workers earn more than 10,000 yuan per year with full occuational safety and health conditions plus legal aid mechanisms. The sub-heading at the top of this article was "Strike at illegal employment; liberate the deceived migrant workers." ... But from June 17, the mainland Chinese media coverage of the illegal brick kilns in Shanxi abandoned the mention of "illegal slave workers," "kidnapped and sold," "indentured workers," "sold and traded" and other language. Instead, they began using "illegal employment," "migrants who don't want to work anymore," "coerced labor," etc.
On June 17, Shanxi provincial governor Yu Youjun held a special leadership meeting on "Strike at illegal employment; liberate the deceived migrant workers" in order to make plants to clean up the illegal employment and liverate the decieved migrant workers. The final part of Yu Youjun's speech emphasized: "We have to grasp the direction of public opinion and make timely clarifications to society about inaccurate or even exaggerated reports so that we can maintain social stability." The last reference is obviously to the Internet forums/blogs in China and the oversesa media.
But why would the overseas media change their language of communication?
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has invoked article 29 of the <Temporary Regulations for Television Advertisement on Broadcast Television>. The action taken was that Ningxia TV's General Channel and Kansu TV's General Channel are ordered to cease the broadcast of all television commercials as of 00:00 on June 18. Broadcast will resume only if the Ningxia and Kansu SARFT offices are satisfied that administrative problems have been solved.
What are these two television channels guilty of? On February 2, both channels were cautioned by SARFT that their health/medical programs were in fact commercial programs that violate the ban on the advertising of pharmaceutical products or medical services on television. However, both channels were unrepetant and continued to broadcast those programs. On April 28 and May 17, SARFT issued a second warning. When SARFT checked on the two channels between end of May and June 11, it was found that the two channels were still inserting commercials and using 'bugs' at the corner of the screen, and so on.
For example, Ningxi TV's General Channel was selling the "Orange Devil" weight-reduction products in its home shopping programs. The above information came from an official press release. Meanwhile, netizens are snickering about the proper interpretation of a certain social phenomenon. Usually, it is taken that one would not advertise to sell a product unless there is consumer demand; if the demand is not there after advertising for some time, then it would be to withdraw the product and try something else. Given the large number of tva dvertisements of medicines to treat sexually transmitted diseases, what is one to think of the state of public helath in China?
Related Link: SARFT pulls all commercials at two TV stations Joel Martinsen, Danwei
... last year in Taiwan, prosecutor Eric Chen charged Taiwan area leader Chen Shui-bian's wife Wu Shu-chen with embezzlement of "state secret fees." On June 16, the Kaohsiung district court annulled the election of Democratic Progressive Party's Chen Chu as mayor last year. The reason was: On the eve of election, Chen Chu's campaign team convened a press conference to say that KMT candidate Huang Chu-ying had been "caught buying votes!" The vote buying charge was baseless, but Huang had no way to respond in time. On the next day, Huang lost the election by 1,000 plus votes. This was deemed to be an illegal tactic that created an unfair election.
This series of judicial decisions showed us something: apart from black gold politics, corruption and a chaotic democracy, there exists another Taiwan.
In terms of the development of democracy in Taiwan, these recent judicial decisions have served the purpose of correcting certain ugly phenomena during elections. In a previous Kaohsiung mayoral election, DPP candidate Frank Hsieh won by 4,000 plus votes with the key being a last-minute audio tape. Although the court ruled later that the tape was fabricated, Hsieh had won the election and served his term. In the 2004 presidential election, Chen Shui-bian won by fewer than 30,000 votes on account of the two bullets on March 19.
The common points about these election gimmicks are: at the most critical moment before the votes were cast, sudden explosive incidents were set off that the opponents were unable to react to in time. That was how Chen Chu won. The decision by the Kaohsiung District Court has objectively struck back at these kinds of improper behaviors during elections.
It is noteworthy that these judgments were made independently. The courts were not intimidated by the ruling DPP; they only looked for convincing evidence and they even charged the Taiwan area leader Chen Shui-bian's wife.
... The Taiwan media comment that every time that the court renders a major decision, someone is happy and someone else is angry. There are completely opposite opinions such as "the darkest day in the judicial history of Taiwan" versus "the judiciary defended the democratic values of Taiwan." When the judiciary fails to please either side all of the time, then it shows that it is relatively independent.
The history of the development of democratic systems around the world showed that in a nation or area in which many races or ethnic groups oppose each other, the development of democracy is often unstable and imperfect. Such is the condition in Taiwan right now. Former DPP Mainland Affairs Department head Chen Chung-hsin said: "Please remember that our basic supporters are only 1/3 of the Taiwan people while the KMT had the advantage of being the rulers for a long time and they have powerful resources." In these circumstances, the independence of the judiciary is especially important and valuable. A KMT party member said: I can't say whether the Taiwan judiciary has been corrupted by politics, but there is definitely a group of judiciary people who work independently with professional attitude and knowledge ...
Therefore, while we recognize that there is instability and chaos in Taiwan democracy, we should also recognize that there exists another Taiwan -- this is the Taiwan in which the citizens are working hard to achieve the rule of law.
The Hong Kong TVB drama series <Heart of Greed> drews a 48 rating in its final episode. <Heart of Greed> is the first TVB drama series to set up blogs for its characters (see Heart of Greed blog). Apart from being keeping up with the fashion of blogging, TVB was probably hoping to capitalize on the Internet effect and draw greater interest from the netizens.
There is probably an Inter
