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Fast Company Magazine recently named Chinese environmental activist Ma Jun to the #1 spot on their list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business. Christina Larson profiles him for the magazine:

An environmental researcher by trade, Ma spent years chronicling China’s ecological catastrophes. Some of what he witnessed was inexorable and slow, like the graying of the Beijing sky; last December, the World Health Organization ranked Beijing 1,035th, out of 1,100 international cities, in air quality. Other results of his country’s unfettered growth were horrific, like the massive flooding of the Yangtze in 1998, after years of deforestation and soil erosion. Eventually, he decided that merely telling the story was not enough. “As a media person, you look to expose the problem,” he says, “but you can’t stop there-—people are looking for answers.”

Ma founded the not-for-profit Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs (IPE) in 2006. Since then, more than anyone else in China, Ma has channeled the power of the Internet and the optimism of China’s younger generation into a force for environmental change. Working with a devoted national network of young volunteers, Ma and his nine full-time staffers have compiled an open-source online database of water, air, and hazardous-waste pollution records—-in the country that generates the world’s highest emissions. Those records are damning: Over five years, IPE volunteers have helped hunt down some 97,000 records of factories operating in violation of China’s green laws. And those efforts lead to change.

“When I look at China’s environmental problems, the real barrier is not lack of technology or money,” he says. “It’s lack of motivation. The motivation should come from regulatory enforcement, but enforcement is weak and environmental litigation is near to impossible. So there’s an urgent need for extensive public participation to generate another kind of motivation.” Ma has become expert at using his database to create that motivation, especially when it comes to helping global companies police their suppliers.

Read more about Ma Jun and about environmental activism in China, via CDT. See also our special section on the Environment.

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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: corporate responsibility, environmental activism, Ma Jun, pollution Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

As more and more auto makers are gearing their products towards China, Nissan is also expanding their luxury car market to China, and they are aiming for 10% of the market despite being one of the late-comers into China’s auto industry. Reuters reports:

Nissan Motor Co Ltd said it aims to triple global sales of its premium Infiniti brand by 2016 and take 10 percent of China’s luxury vehicle market, challenging leaders like Audi AG and Mercedes Benz maker Daimler AG.

The target appears “challenging,” Yale Zhang, head of Shanghai-based consulting firm Automotive Foresight, said.

In order for Nissan to achieve it, the Yokohama-based automaker would have to “aggressively push localization over the coming two to three years and aggressively price locally produced cars,” Zhang said.

In China, Infiniti sold just 19,000 cars in the last fiscal year ended March, a fraction of the more than 300,000 sold in 2011 by Audi, Volkswagen AG’s premium brand.

While Nissan expands into emerging markets with the revival of their Datsun brand, they plan to enter China through Hong Kong with the luxury brand, Infiniti.ABC News adds:

Nissan’s upscale Infiniti brand unveiled its new global headquarters in Hong Kong on Tuesday, as the Japanese automaker uses the southern Chinese financial center to grab a bigger piece of the world’s top car market.

Infiniti is the first car maker to base itself in Hong Kong, a semiautonomous region of China better known for its banking prowess and stock market.

Ghosn said the company chose to move the high-end division to Hong Kong so staff could better observe the city’s luxury goods market. Many foreign brands have flocked to the city in recent years in pursuit of wealthy Chinese shoppers.

“During the next five years, Hong Kong and mainland China will together be our most important growth market,” Ghosn said.

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© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: auto industry, auto market, luxury cars, Nissan Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Google now owns Motorola. Chinese regulators followed the U.S. and Europe in clearing the deal earlier this week, removing the last barrier. Although the acquisition opens new territory for the search giant, its most immediate effect could be remaking the existing Android landscape. Will Google use its new arm to pound all competitors, or just Apple?

Google, a Hardware Company?

The first big change will be to replace Motorola's chief. CEO Sanjay Jha is out, replaced by longtime Google employee Dennis Woodside, a man instrumental in the revenue growth of Google as a business over the last several years. Now his job will be to streamline Motorola’s smartphone product line, cut out the dead weight of Motorola Mobility and deliver on the Android geek’s wet dream.

Many pundits and analysts thought that when Google acquired Motorola, it was purely a patent deal. Google had just lost out on a boatload of critical mobile patents in the Nortel patent auction and Android looked more vulnerable to being taken down in the patent wars than ever. With Motorola in its war chest, Google all of a sudden had 17,000 patents from the company that basically invented the cell phone. With patents in hand, would Google spin off Motorola Mobility or sell it piece by piece?

Selling off Motorola's hardware division doesn't appear to be in the plan. If the search company were going to do that, Google CEO Larry Page likely would not have enticed one of his most effective lieutenants, Woodside, to take over. Yet, while the smartphone division will likely remain under Google's control, other hardware aspects of Motorola Mobility, such as its set-top cable box segment, may go on the block.

“Many users coming online today may never use a desktop machine, and the impact of that transition will be profound - as will the ability to just tap and pay with your phone. That’s why it’s a great time to be in the mobile business, and why I’m confident Dennis and the team at Motorola will be creating the next generation of mobile devices that will improve lives for years to come,” Page wrote. 

Balancing the Ecosystem

To prognosticate the future of Motorola and Google, it is pertinent to look at the guidelines various government bodies put in place when approving the merger. For instance, both the European Commission (the European Union version of the Federal Trade Commission) and the U.S. Department of Justice concentrated mostly on the patents aspect of the merger. The U.S. DOJ was obviously thinking that Motorola/Google was a pure patent play when it approved Google’s acquisition, the sale of Nortel’s patents to “RockStar Bidco” (a consortium of Apple, Research In Motion and Microsoft) and Apple’s acquisition of Novell’s patents in the same ruling. 

“The division's investigations focused on whether the acquiring firms could use these patents to raise rivals' costs or foreclose competition,” the DOJ stated in its release. “The division concluded that the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics.”

While the E.U. and the U.S. focused on the patents aspect of the deals, China had different motivations when it approved the deal earlier this week. China stipulated that Google had to keep Android free and open source for at least the next five years. China is clearly looking out for its smartphone manufacturers in this deal, with Huawei, Meizu, Lenovo and ZTE pumping out versions of Android smartphones on a regular basis. 

An acquisition of this size, with so many global entities sticking their fingers in the pie, is a fascinating study on the global impact of Android. While Google does not directly profit from Android hardware (for now), there are billions of dollars wrapped up in the Android ecosystem. And this is where Google needs to tread carefully. It needs to balance its desire to streamline the Android process while also not alienating its OEM and carrier partners in the process.

One way to appease the Android ecosystem would be to spread the love when it comes to flagship Android Nexus devices. According to reports, Google will be giving early access of its next Android operating system, likely called Jelly Bean, to five different manufacturing partners that could then sell the device directly to consumers. One motivation for this would be to wrest control of Android from mobile carriers, such as Verizon and AT&T (in the same way that Google originally had planned when it unveiled the first Nexus device and tried to sell it without the carriers). Another reason, and probably more important from Google’s perspective, would be that it could let Motorola create a quintessential Android Nexus device and avoid claims of favoritism.

Benefits of Motorola/Google Android Devices

The potential benefits of Google taking top-level control of the Android ecosystem are intriguing. Google benefits, consumers benefit, developers benefit. It remains to be seen if the carriers and other manufacturers will benefit, especially if Motorola and Google create an Android device that becomes a true “iPhone killer” and starts cannibalizing sales from other Android handsets. 

For consumers, the benefits are obvious: an extremely high-end smartphone and likely an equally impressive tablet that are streamlined to Android software and hardware specifications. The device would receive timely Android firmware upgrades and customer support from Google and Motorola. The very best of Android delivered at palatable price points.

Google benefits from these devices as well. It is hard to say that Page and the rest of the Google executives see the revenue that Apple is making from its iOS line of devices and don't want a bigger slice of that pie. For instance, Apple made more in profit from its hardware last quarter than Google made in total revenue. 

This is not going to be easy for Google and Motorola. Google is moving into an entirely new product category and that comes with its own problems outside of the balancing act that has to be performed with the rest of the Android ecosystem. There are a lot of balls to juggle, not only in incorporating Motorola into Google, but creating a vibrant division that operates and iterates with a high degree of quality. 

What can be said is this: In many, many ways, the best thing to ever happen to Android will be Google’s acquisition of Motorola. Google can now defend its mobile operating system with Motorola’s patents and create dynamic devices with Motorola’s hardware. At the same time, the E.U. and U.S. have put in measures concerning litigation around essential patents and China has ensured that Android will remain open and free. There will be losers in the Android ecosystem, among them several mobile manufacturers and maybe mobile carriers, depending on how much control Google can exercise over the sale of the devices. 

When the Motorola deal was announced last August and Page said that Google wanted to “supercharge” Android, he was not being facetious. Google has a tremendous opportunity in front of it. The path is paved with daggers but the benefit to the entire ecosystem at this point outweighs the risks. 

As CDT reported earlier, 28 Chinese fishermen have been detained in North Korean waters and held for a ransom of $142,000. These fishermen were eventually released, but it is unclear whether or not the ransom was paid. The Los Angeles Times reports:

The fishermen returned to the Chinese port of Dalian on Monday morning, the New China News Agency reported.

Chinese media suggested that Beijing did not pay a ransom for the boats. The news agency report credited China’s ambassador to Pyongyang, Liu Hongcai, with securing the release through “negotiation and close contact” with the North Korean government.

The release of the boats does little, however, to clear up questions about whether impoverished North Koreans are engaging in Somalia-style piracy to raise money. Following the death of leader Kim Jong Il in December, North Korea elevated his 28-year-old son, Kim Jong Un, to replace him, and some believe the transition has not gone smoothly.

Chinese fishery officials were quoted Monday as demanding an investigation into who in North Korea was behind the seizure of the boats. The state-run Global Times newspaper said hundreds of Chinese fishing vessels had been ordered to retreat westward to avoid another incident.

This incident comes amid tensions about Pyongyang’s nuclear activities and missile tests. Although China, Japan, and South Korea have agreed to work together on dealing with North Korea, China has seemed to launch it’s own investigation on the incident. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The report said the Koreans took whatever they could, and that one boat wasn’t enough to hold all of the booty and that a second boat was called in.

The fishermen were later taken ashore and given cigarettes before being forced at gunpoint to sign a document while they were filmed. According to the report, the contents of the document read : ”We entered DPRK waters and were working there illegally. The DPRK treated us in a friendly manner and all was normal during our stay there.”

The report makes the point that it is still unclear who actually detained the Chinese fishermen, with the crew insisting that the boats were boarded in the early morning and the fishermen were unable to see for sure. They did not say whether they had any other opportunities to identify the gunboat.

The North Korean embassy in Beijing declined to comment, but China Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei offered Beijing’s most extensive comments on the incident to date at a regular press briefing Tuesday afternoon. Here is what he said: “The Foreign Ministry attaches great importance to the incident. The Foreign Ministry and Chinese Embassy in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea maintained close communication with the DPRK in Beijing and Pyongyang, securing the release of the fishermen and fishing boats. The Chinese side urged the DPRK to observe agreements, including those on consular visits and notifications. China also demanded the DPRK ensure safety and humanitarian treatment of the fishermen. Based on our understanding, the Bureau of Fisheries is conducting investigation.”

Beijing is Pyongyang’s closest political ally, and this incident has sparked tension among netizens that call Pyongyang “ungrateful.” The BBC adds:

The allegations, which have been circulated widely on Chinese social media, caused anger among netizens, who slammed North Korea for its “ingratitude” and accused the Chinese authorities of being weak.

On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform, more than a million posts have been published on the incident since the detention was publicised last week.

“North Koreans, do you still deserve our help? Is this how you repay us?” said Kong Lingquan, a Shanghai-based event director.

“After such a shameful incident, why doesn’t our government demand an explanation from North Korea?” a Weibo user said.

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© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: fisherman incident, kidnapping, maritime boundaries, netizens, North Korea, North Korea relations Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

It’s a year of political change for the Chinese Communist Party with a once-in-a-decade leadership transition planned this autumn and an economy sending worrying signals. But that’s not exactly the way it looked Tuesday when the party’s Shanghai branch introduced its “new” lineup of cadres.

Taiwan’s incarcerated ex-president Chen Shui-bian might not able to go home as early as he expected.

Contextually underpinning Leung Chi Wo’s first solo exhibition in London, “We Must Construct as Well as Destroy,” is Aston Webb, an architect whose text published in the book London of the Future (1921) forms the exhibition title. In Aston Webb’s Prophecy (2011), a photograph of the Webb-designed Hong Kong Legislative Council (LEGCO) Building is presented on a light box upon which Webb’s vision of a future London is etched: a new city, where gray streets are opened up, gloomy tenements are swept away, and light, air, and beauty reign. The image, depicting one of Hong Kong’s last surviving colonial buildings framed by a mass of trees, concrete high-rises and steel and glass skyscrapers, compositionally relates to Untitled (2011), a drawing of Herbert Mason’s December 1940 front-page image of the St. Paul’s Cathedral dome—Webb’s inspiration for the LEGCO Building—surrounded by a Blitzkrieg-induced smokescreen.

While these two images visualize the intricate relationship between London and Hong Kong, five other works are positioned as multi-layered interferences—or interventions—that disrupt the linear approach to history that so often simplifies the complexities of time and place. A series of four light installations responds to this idea of decontextualization by presenting photographs of bullet holes marking the LEGCO building’s surface, ascribed to the battle for Hong Kong against the invading Japanese army in December 1941. Phrases inscribed into plexiglas surfaces are taken out of context, like I’m Glad We’ve Been Bombed (2010), extracted from a World War II sound bite of The Queen Mother after Buckingham Palace was bombed during the Blitz, just as Enemy Bombing (2011), a marble sculpture installed in the space to spell out its own name, is extracted from a plaque found on the Aston Webb façade of the Victoria and Albert Museum that commemorates the World War II bombings in London.

But what is at stake when words from the past are reframed outside of their original context? What is to be said about enemy bombings—or even the gratitude for having been bombed—after a decade of watching the gruesome Shock and Awe bombardment of Iraq in 2003, the July War between Lebanon and Israel in 2006, and more recently, the bombing of Libya? As light pierces through each bullet hole and phrases emerge from the transparent surfaces of the plexiglas in We Still Need to Fight (2010), quoting a text by the International Domestic Workers Network protesting the minimum wage outside the LEGCO Building in 2010, and Stop Useless Resistance (2010), quoted from propaganda leaflets dropped over Hong Kong by the Japanese in 1941, the question of how to read such slogans is just as problematic as the question of who or what constitutes the “enemy” today.

Such questions recall Maurice Merleau-Ponty, who stated in his 1945 essay “The War Has Taken Place,” that the only way for us to be human to one another, for relations between consciousnesses to become transparent, and universality to become fact, will be in a society where past traumas have been wiped out and conditions for effective liberty realized. Until then, “The life of society will remain a dialogue and a battle between phantoms—in which real tears and real blood suddenly start to flow.” But to wipe out past traumas must we not come to terms with them first? Could such “phantoms” be those generalized memorial plaques, isolated sound bites, and buildings representative of historical moments, even political ideologies? Have crucial historical contexts become those phantoms, flimsy in their de-contextualized states, amidst our avoidance of dealing or interacting with them critically?

As Merleau-Ponty observed in 1945: “We had secretly resolved to know nothing of violence and unhappiness as elements of history because we were living in a country too happy and too weak to envisage them.” Compare and contrast: then and now. Stephanie Bailey

Before the wheels fell off of Bo Xilai’s Red Culture Express, his “Chongqing Model” of governance was often mentioned alongside Guangdong party chief Wang Yang’s comparatively liberal approach, with the two men underscoring the increasingly public ideological cleavage within the Chinese Communist Party and seen as competing to define the next chapter in China’s development. With Bo Xilai now out of the picture, Reuters’ John Ruwitch and Michael Martina report that Wang now appears poised to nab a seat on the Politburo Standing Committee in the upcoming leadership transition:

Wang, 57, used his provincial party congress meeting this month to garner publicity ahead of the 18th national Party Congress where, late this year, a new and younger leadership group will be unveiled to replace President Hu Jintao’s team.

Wang’s performance at the Guangdong congress highlighted his image as the politician most likely to take up the reformist mantle of outgoing Premier Wen Jiabao, who had seen Bo as a threat to his reform legacy and moved swiftly to cut him down.

“Wang Yang’s speech was sort of valedictory,” said Willy Lam, a Hong Kong-based expert on the Chinese leadership.

The article also calls attention to two other provincial-level party chief’s, Shanghai’s Yu Zhengsheng and Tianjin’s Zhang Gaoli, who are seen as contenders for seats on the Standing Committee and, like Wang, can use their respective party congresses as platforms to make their case for promotion.

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© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Bo Xilai, CCP 5th generation, Guangdong Model, leadership transition, Politburo Standing Committee, reform, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wang Yang, Yu Zhengsheng, Zhang Gaoli Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

Writing in the Liberation Army Daily (解放军报) today, Cai Weisu (蔡伟素), vice-minister of the logistics division for the Chengdu Military Region, spoke out against what he called “political liberalism,” calling for unquestioning obedience by CCP members and military personnel to “the policies, regulations and discipline demands of the Party.”

“Discipline is the guarantor of the line of the ruling Party, the lifeline of the armed forces and the Party,” Cai wrote.

Whether in the extreme hardship of revolution and war, or in the complicated era of peace and development, our Party and our armed forces must maintain strict political discipline, protecting the political stands of Party members and ensuring the thoroughness of the revolution. Today, every Party member must consciously defend the discipline and high position of the Party . . . struggling with a clear-cut stand against all that damages the unity of the Party, that violates the discipline of the Party, and that does harm to the basic interests of the Party. . .

Cai continued: “Party members and cadres must conscientiously study and grasp the the policies, regulations and discipline demands of the Party, not stepping on the ‘red line’ and not charging into ‘forbidden zones’. They must speak [the Party's] politics (讲政治), obey commands and follow the rules, firmly opposing liberalism in politics, and they must not heed, trust or pass along hearsay, consciously subjecting their words and deeds to the restraint of policy and discipline..”

Two more portions of Cai’s editorial follow:

Strengthening our political consciousness and strictly observing political discipline are not abstract concepts, and even less empty slogans. Their importance lies in active practice, and their weight in experience and training. The words and actions of leading cadres all have an impact on the armed forces, and we must at all times keep cool heads, evincing in our actual work and concrete actions the principle of “in talking politics, having the interests of the whole nation at heart and having a strong sense of discipline.”

We must deeply study the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics, closely integrating it with the realities of our armed forces, observing and handling issues while standing at the political heights, accurately seeing the various tensions and difficulties facing social development in our nation . . .

[ABOVE: An editorial in today's Liberation Army Daily (highlighted in red by CMP) speaks out against "political liberalism."]

After a lengthy radio silence on the detention of 28 Chinese fishermen by North Korea, China’s state media has begun to parcel out fragments of information.

Zhejiang’s fallen business tycoon Wu Ying was resentenced on Monday in a decision likely to avert her execution for fraudulent fundraising. Her controversial death sentence was overturned last month by China’s Supreme People’s Court, which upheld her guilt but sent the sentence back to the provincial court for reconsideration. From Caixin:

After a serial of trials which first began in April 2009, Wu Ying was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, according to the Zhejiang Higher People’s Court website.

Legal experts immediately interpreted the sentence as life imprisonment under China’s legal environment.

Wu’s former lawyer Zhang Yanfeng said to media, “She’s been sentenced to life imprisonment, barring any wrongdoing in the next two years.” Zhang said the verdict was expected as provincial high courts are subordinate to the Supreme People’s Court.

New York University law professor Jerome Cohen told The New York Times last month that the SPC’s decision “seems a typical Chinese judicial compromise between what those who call for the death penalty wanted and what Wu’s many supporters, both popular and professional, have called for”. The new suspended death sentence may be an attempt to maintain a similar balance, compared with the lighter sentences Cohen held out as another possible outcome. But human rights researcher Joshua Rosenzweig described it as “a gutless decision, one that ignores core problems with the case“. Although some supporters expressed satisfaction at Wu’s likely escape from execution, questions about uneven punishment and institutional problems remain. From Chuin-Wei Yap at China Real Time Report:

The case attracted widespread media attention for the severity of the sentence and the long-running campaign in China’s blogosphere to save her.

Many of her supporters wondered aloud why she was facing death when corrupt officials found guilty of similar crimes were often granted lighter sentences ….

For the public that’s kept the issue alive for more than three years, it’s a gratifying conclusion. “It’s not just Wu Ying,” Wang Shuo, a prominent magazine editor, wrote on the Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo. “If it’s non-violent financial crime, no one should die.”

“Wu Ying was unlucky to run into hole in the legal system,” added another Sina Weibo user writing under the handle Chaoxin Xinzhixing. “When will China’s legal system be more robust, so the public can be convinced?”

Tea Leaf Nation’s survey of Sina Weibo reactions reveals similarly mixed views, and notes that over 3.5 million posts on the subject were culled from search results overnight.

Many netizens hailed the result. @杭州恰恰 wrote, “This is…a victory for public opinion! [Responsiveness to] public opinion is progressing!” @洪陈纷纭 wrote: “The power of democracy; the power of Weibo.”

Unfortunately, many netizens felt their victory, if it was theirs at all, was a Pyrrhic one. @Q版温故‘s comment aptly captured netizen sentiment: “No matter what, the result is progress. But this time, the progress is mostly because of the contributions of public opinion, and not law itself.” Instead of law, many commenters perceived realpolitik, hard at work. @闫英士 opined, “The real meaning is this: The death sentence is to save face, the commutation is to quiet citizen rage. But it all has nothing to do with Wu Ying herself, and certainly doesn’t prove the independence of the so-called judiciary.”

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© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: death penalty, death sentence, execution, Jerome cohen, Supreme People's Court, Wang Shuo, Wu Ying, Zhejiang Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

A Russian cellist with the Beijing Symphony Orchestra whose impolite treatment of a Chinese train passenger drew widespread online condemnation has been dismissed.

At TIME’s Ecocentric blog, Kate Springer discusses the problem of subsidence which, according to a recent government report, affects more than fifty cities and around 50,000 square miles of land across China. The issue is strongly tied to the country’s chronic water shortages, with over-extraction of groundwater accounting for almost 70% of subsidence. But in Shanghai, the sheer weight of buildings makes matters even worse.

Though some critics argue the Chinese government has been too slow to act, research, public concern and some hefty bills ($35 billion in Shanghai alone in the last 40 years), has sparked some momentum. Recently, the state council approved China’s Land Subsidence Prevention Project, a countrywide initiative to prevent land subsidence. Likewise, Beijing, which has descended more than a foot in the past decade, has also made an effort to reduce underground water extraction, with plans to close 800 water extraction wells in 2012, according to the Beijing Water Authority. By 2014, the city hopes to halt underground water extraction in urban areas altogether as part of the North-South Water Diversion Project. The project expects to bring 3 billion cubic feet of water supply to Beijing from the Yangtze River. This would not only satisfy one-third of the city’s total water demand, but would also cut the extraction of underground water in half.

But Li, who worked at the Chinese Academy of Science for 15 years, says such programs will not be enough. “It’s hard to quantify how much this might help, but the question is, is that a problem solved? The answer is no. The problem lies in the early issue with urbanization,” he says. Scientists expect the regulations to help curb the consumption of underground water supplies, but there a few things the government has less control over, such as global warming. As the land degradation and excessive guzzling of ground water continues, environmentalists predict waters surrounding Shanghai to rise 9 to 27 inches by 2050 as a result of melting ice caps.

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© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Beijing, construction, Shanghai, south-to-north water diversion project, urban development, water conservancy, water crisis, water shortage, Yangtze River Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

In March, Wen Jiabao told a State Council conference that corruption is “the most crucial threat” to Party rule; this month, Murong Xuecun wrote in The New York Times that because of it, “no roads are straight” in China. Caixin examines one particular case, in which a high-ranking drug squad officer in Hunan was stripped of his position after relentlessly pursuing a case in which his fellow policemen were apparently involved.

On March 17, 2012, the Public Security Bureau in Chenzhou, in the central province of Hunan, said it was removing Huang Bailian as head of its drug squad.

Huang’s explanation for the move was simple: “This is retaliation.”

Three years earlier Huang, who is 48 years old and a 25-year veteran of the police force, cracked what he thought was a large drug trafficking case. However, before the case could be handed to prosecutors, his classification of it was changed to clear one suspect. Furthermore, some of the drugs seized during his arrests quickly went missing.

Evidence of the theft pointed to a subordinate of Huang’s, Wang Bin. Furthermore, there were suspicions that Wang and Huang Bailian’s boss, vice-captain of the drug squad Huang Zhongxiang, were protecting traffickers.

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© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: corrupt officials, corruption, drug trafficking, Hunan, Murong Xuecun, police corruption, Wen Jiabao Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

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BenNaNa Ice Cream is an unusual ice cream stick from Nestlé Ice Cream that is eaten just like a real banana. The eating experience starts when you take a bite from the top of the peelable jelly shell, which you then roll down like a banana skin to reveal an ice cream core.

To promote BenNaNa in China, Nestlé Ice Cream and Social@Ogilvy (a team of social experts from OgilvyOne and Ogilvy PR) have launched a fun and exciting digital campaign. The two-part campaign consists of a microsite based on the kid-friendly theme of a magical island as well as a hugely popular corporate Sina Weibo account complete with bespoke funny videos that has seen close to three million users share posts or upload their own BenNaNa pictures.

The Nestlé BenNaNa’s Sina Weibo account entertains visitors with amusing stories of BenNaNa’s magical ‘peelability’ and invites them to share their own BenNaNa stories through posts and pictures. The use of Sina Weibo hashtags such as #LegendaryNestléBenNaNa and #EatingABananaWithoutSpittingOutTheSkin spread word of peeling and eating a BenNaNa Ice Cream and continues to encourage users to share their own jokes and experiences. “BenNaNa” was ranked as the number one trending topic on Sina Weibo two weeks after the official Weibo account launch in March 2012 and has since been ranked among the top 10 Weibo searches a total of seven times.

Social networking giant QQ was selected as the digital platform to host the interactive micro-site by OgilvyOne’s media agency partner Mindshare. Set against a fun tropical island backdrop full of monkeys, the microsite is packed with animated BenNaNa Ice Cream games that encourage netizens to earn QQ’s virtual currency, learn magic tricks and vote to win prizes.

Running through the hot and sticky summer season, the BenNaNa micro-site will be live from April-September 2012 and the Sina Weibo account until summer 2012.

Agency Credit: OgilvyOne Beijing, Ogilvy PR Beijing, Mindshare



Last week, China Media Project wrote about a recent series of articles in the Beijing Daily, a newspaper controlled by the Party leadership, that blasted the West, including an editorial that condemns Western-style media freedoms. From CMP:

An editorial in the the paper today criticizes “commercial newspapers and magazines” in China — that would be the likes of Southern Metropolis Daily, Caixin Media, Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post, etcetera — of being infected with a Western notions of journalism that they do not sufficiently understand.

The editorial argues further that the Western concepts of the media’s role do not suit China’s unique “circumstances”.

“Chinese media must sing the main theme,” the editorial said, a reference to the media’s role as propaganda vehicles for the CCP. “This is determined by China’s political system, and accords with the realities of China as a nation of 1.3 billion people. The fact is that for China to develop it must maintain social stability, and it must create a public opinion environment conducive to stability.”

CMP also pointed out that after the editorial was published, ironically, searches for “Beijing Daily” were blocked from Sina Weibo.

CMP now reports that the above editorial has inspired a lively debate in China about the purpose of the media. They translate a letter to Southern Metropolis Daily in which the author disagrees with the concept of media put forward by the Beijing Daily:

On the question of whether or not media reports on food safety have created a sense of fear and anxiety, we have recently had two media expressing different views on this issue. Beijing Daily says that quite a few report lately — on food safety, doctor-patient conflicts, construction quality, official corruption and other issues — have been built up by the media, giving the impression that all food in China is “poisonous”, the all buildings are “tofu architecture,” that all public officials are corrupt, and suggesting that social tensions are growing ever more severe and prospects for development are grim. “In fact,” the newspaper said, “this is just a mistaken impression created by various media.”

The Xinhua Daily Telegraph responded with an editorial called, “Expert Opinion Helps Calm ‘Food Panic’” (专业舆论有助于消除“吃的恐慌”). The editorial argued that “facing problems head on is the basis of resolving problems, and media reporting on food safety issues is a form of monitoring by public opinion and monitoring by society that should be encouraged” (New Express, May 19).

Naturally, the fact that such issues as food safety, doctor-patient conflict, construction quality and official corruption have become public opinion hotspots has to do with media reports. But if there were no media reports, would these problems be any less obvious or serious? No one lives in a vacuum, and the various problems we come upon were not created because of media reports. Sometimes, naively, I’m even of a mind to feed information to the media! Which is to say, I think there are far too few media reports on negative issues.

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© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Beijing Daily, media conditions, press freedom Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

In a New York Times Opinion, Harvard’s Roderick MacFarquhar writes that the Bo Xilai scandal – and the revelations about the wealth and lifestyle of his family and the families of other “princelings” – has suggested an underlying fear among China’s leadership about the country’s future:

This may seem strange, given that the Chinese have propelled their country into the top ranks of global economic powerhouses over the past 30 years. There are those who predict a hard landing for an overheated economy — where growth has already slowed — but the acquisition of wealth is better understood not just as an economic cushion, or as pure greed, but as a political hedge.

China’s Communist leaders cling to Deng Xiaoping’s belief that their continuance in power will depend on economic progress. But even in China, a mandate based on competence can crumble in hard times. So globalizing one’s assets — transferring money and educating one’s children overseas — makes sense as a hedge against risk. (At least $120 billion has been illegally transferred abroad since the mid-1990s, according to one official estimate.)

…

Today, the party’s 80 million members are still powerful, but most join the party for career advancement, not idealism. Every day, there are some 500 protests, demonstrations or riots against corrupt or dictatorial local party authorities, often put down by force. The harsh treatment that prompted the blind human-rights advocate Chen Guangcheng to seek American protection is only one of the most notorious cases. The volatile society unleashed against the state by Mao almost 50 years ago bubbles like a caldron. Stories about the wealth amassed by relatives of party leaders like Mr. Bo, who have used their family connections to take control of vast sectors of the economy, will persuade even loyal citizens that the rot reaches to the very top.

Last week, The Guardian reported that three retired CCP officials called on leaders to disclose their family wealth before the issue further erodes the party’s grip on power ahead of the upcoming leadership succession.

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© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us Post tags: Bo Xilai, CCP legitimacy, chinese communist party, corruption, Deng Xiaoping, luxury, princelings Download Tools to Circumvent the Great Firewall

On the Sina Weibo account of CCTV International host Yang Rui…

@主持人杨锐: The Ministry of Public Security must clean out foreign garbage, arresting foreign thugs and protect ignorant/innocent girls, with Wudaokou and Sanlitun being the disaster areas [worst places]. Behead the snake heads [human traffickers], the unemployed Americans and Europeans who come to China to make money, trafficking in people, misleading the public and encouraging them to emigrate. Identify the foreign spies, who find a Chinese woman to cohabitate with, while their job is to collect intelligence, drawing maps and perfecting GPS [coordinates] for Japan, Korea, Europe, and America under the guise of being tourists. Drive out the foreign shrew, shut down Al-Jazeera’s Beijing Office, let those who demonize China shut their mouths and fuck off!

There were only a ~3300 forwards and ~1600 comments of this microblog post so according to Chinese internet standards, this was not very popular.

Comments on Sina Weibo:

凌通社_V有容奶大：

Might as well just close the country off to the world.

刑警大队的雷子：

Apart from protecting the ignorant girls, the rest I approve of. 99% of those who chase foreigners are not ignorant, just vain and avaricious.

Nathan-郭：

No need to demonize, [China] already is a demon.

文婧-Love小毛驴：

How did China approve visas for these foreign trash?

Rick_张洪征：

Brother, calm down.

天下乐田：

Don’t make everything into a campaign/movement; Also no need to demonize the “three illegals”, after all they are just a small minority, and those who are a true danger to society are still our own people; The key still is to raise our level of management and work efficiency.

[Note: "Three Illegals" refers to foreigners who illegal entered, are illegally staying, or are illegally working in China.]

aluo5：

What makes Chinese men the most upset is Chinese girls one by one being seized into the arms of those various foreigners who are both old and ugly and may even have physical defects and then being their playthings.

泽畔微言：

Sometimes it is the Chinese women themselves who are foolish, and you can’t blame them [foreigners].

漂流的火锅：

I’m a little confused: Wasn’t the crime of hooliganism abolished? Under what name is the Ministry of Public Security using, campaign or crackdown? Apart from protecting ignorant girls, shouldn’t they also protect all citizen’s lawful freedom and rights? Why differentiate the treatment between foreign hooligans/thugs and native hooligans/thugs? Isn’t the harm of native thugs who exploit public power even larger?

11四十不惑11：

What should be done about fake foreign devils?

ILOVE鲍鱼：

Fucking should’ve been doing this long ago. I don’t understand why our countrymen are always bowing and scraping before foreigners!? Laowai are fucking humans too, why does everyone fucking look so highly upon them, fucking stupid cunts.

龙腾山巅：

These words are going to make foreign-worshipers upset.

樱桃娘：

Who did Al-Jazeera offend…?

隐不溜丢：

The rest is whatever, but what happened with Al-Jazeera?

Vichien维秦：

I strongly agree with everything else, apart from banishing Al-Jazeera. Why do foreign media always demonize China? Europe and America is like this, Japan and Korean is like this. All well-known international media has been shut out by us.

ZEDDD：

The things you’re saying is to protect yourself, right?

人重脚软：

You’re already how old and you still don’t talk reasonably. If it weren’t for a certain government’s indulgence, would foreigners be so outrageous? Moreover, about demonizing China, do people really need to demonize it? Open your eyes and look at this Communist Party-led society: Towards its own, fighting for every inch of land without regard for the lives of the ordinary common people; Toward foreigners, condemning and protesting while sending money… Stop hiding at CCAV every day fantasizing. In comparison to [other CCTV presenters] Cui Yongyuan, BaiYansong, and Zhao Pu, I even feel embarrassed for them!

超级臭鱼：

Is it this serious?

妍妈aysha：

Not clear on the matter with Al-Jazeera, so no comment. However, I have in Sanlitun run into before a very rude and obnoxious German, a fat laowai married woman who arrogantly looked down on Chinese people, simultaneously making money in China while trampling on our countrymen’s dignity.

李德基：

The Europeans and Americans who come to China, if they’re not on official business, then they’re idiots, or slackers, or cheats, whereas the Chinese people who go to Europe and America, if they’re not bosses, then they’re corrupt officials, or the society’s elites!

阳光的幸运一生：

My Chinese company’s CEO is a foreign national Chinese, so what should he be counted as?

邢岳：

This is how the Boxers started back in the day…

快活林阿甘：

Ding! I ding this with all my might! In Beijing there is a group of foreign stupid cunts, all day eating and drinking and hitting on cheap girls. I think it is strange, their entire body covered with hair like they haven’t evolved, and their poor cunts without jobs, and there are so many young girls willing to be with them, chasing after foreigners, and they’re quite beautiful too. Wake up, actually they’re all laid-off thugs who have come to Beijing without prospects, with that bastard who was beat up several days ago being an example.

Donduk_Sufferin：

Was it Al-Jazeera misleading the public or certain people unwilling to face the truth?? Afraid of others exposing something, right? Why is a large grown man like you talking like an idiot without character?

游云庭律师 ：

“Drive out the foreign shrew, shut down Al-Jazeera’s Beijing Office”. Not having this kind of CCTV presenter write editorials for Beijing Daily is a waste of talent.

将军令7204：

Microblog owner, you say this, I feel like I’m living in a fantasy world. You being a television presenter is a waste of talent, you should join the Central Propaganda Department!

海边的金子：

Support the Ministry of Public Security, drive out Marx, Engels, Stalin, Lenin, and other foreign garbage.

腾飞的2012：

What is demonizing China? Are Chinese people ignorant of what kind of country they live in? When in Rome, do as the Romans do…

天天落井下石：

I don’t know if you’re really this stupid, or just pretending to be this stupid.

僧叡：

Looks like a new Cultural Revolution has arrived, and these media personalities standing on the front line are the first to sniff the scent, beginning to declare their loyalty.

中央丛林-欧阳：

Whether foreigners are thugs/hooligans or not I don’t know, but this presenter has already demonstrated that he is a thug. Foreign thugs should be cleaned out, but this presenter thug should be cleaned out even more.

OLO_R：

Mental retard.

独关风月：

Mister, don’t be so angry! If China hasn’t done anything to be ashamed of, if China has enough self-confidence, then it wouldn’t be afraid of others demonizing you [China]! If you’re frightened into a nervous breakdown just because others said a few things about you, you probably should ask yourself if you’re mentally healthy!

段炼sognosatan：

~~~Oh, it’s just a CCTV presenter!

本欲无言：

Absolutely avoid going up against CCTV’s lowly stupid cunts, there is nothing in the world that is less worth it.

piaoxiang9945：

There sure are a TMD lot of wumao dogs amongst CCTV presenters. If you’re so niubi, why don’t you go safeguard the Huangyan Islands?

狮子莞莞：

My god, how did the Boxers get reborn in CCTV?!

大大的悠哈糖：

Might as well stop broadcasting bullshit language news as well [referring to CCTV International in English]. After all, if the foreign trash are cleaned out, who will be left to listen to it? [Yang Rui hosts an CCTV show called Dialogue, which is in English.]

小爷刀：

There are wumao everywhere, it’s just that CCTV produces more of them!

Citizen_X：

Stupid cunt, fuck off!!!

An ongoing battle over language and identity hit a busy Hong Kong shopping district this weekend, stirring deep emotions over the city’s at times uneasy relationship with mainland China.