I wanted to share some personal news with you, but first, I apologize for having neglected this blog for much of 2010.  I wanted to thank fellow blogger Baoru (aka Katherine Tanyu) for publishing some great content on the World Expo and I appreciate her keeping the blog alive while she was in Shanghai in 2010.

I just accepted an offer to join Google as head of product management, based in Beijing.  I wrote about this on my personal blog, and since no one even knows about that blog, I’ll excerpt from it liberally here:

In this role, I’ll be leading a small, very-talented team of product managers who are doing two things: (1) launching products and supporting global R&D projects focused on Google’s global markets, and (2) driving a product roadmap serving the domestic Chinese market.  I’ll be commuting to China from Mountain View until June or July, at which point my wife, our 3 boys, and some subset of our accumulated “stuff” will lift off from our home near Mountain View and land in a new home somewhere in Beijing.  In the meantime, I’ll have plenty of time to rack up frequent flier miles, become “Googly” (aka programmed in the Google global culture) and build important relationships in the global R&D organization at Google which is Mountain-View centric.

If you’re reading this post, you probably already know that I think China is “one of the biggest stories of our time.”  Like most of you, I also firmly believe that when the history of our period is written, the internet will be another one of the biggest stories of our time.  In this role, I’m excited about the chance to play my part in both of these stories at the same time.

In many ways, I can’t think of a better vantage point to contribute to China’s development and to contribute to the development of the internet.  And because the role is intensely cross-border and global in nature, it is something that plays to my strengths as a foreigner.

I also shared about the loss of the naive enthusiasm I once had about all things related to China back at the very beginning…

But during the past 5 years, I’ve come to appreciate an apt characterization of China made by James L. McGregor (now on Twitter), former Wall Street Journal bureau chief and Dow Jones China chief executive, who called China “the world’s greatest startup” and “the world’s greatest turnaround.”  I now try to understand everything in China in terms of these two faces–or aspects–of China.

Just about one year ago, Google announced it’s new approach to Chinawhich some later characterized as “the pullout.”  Some others have characterized 2010 as a “bitter winter” for the Chinese internet overall.  In fact, according to the saying “guo jin, min tui” the rest of Chinese entrepreneurs and non-state owned businesses also faced a bitter winter of challenges in 2010.  Even Jeffrey Immelt went off script to express his frustration.

So I’ll seek to recapture and use the energy that comes through youthful optimism…while keeping a realistic eye toward the situation at all times.

A little bit more about joining Google China at original post.

So what does this mean for the ol’ CNReviews?  I’m not sure.   I expect the job to be pretty demanding from a time standpoint, especially given the heavy travel required between Mountain View, CA; Beijing, Shanghai, and Taipei.  But I know I’ll be needing a place to write about life, people, and business in China and I can think of no better place than here.

I’ll be thinking about how to resume blogging on CNReviews with a narrower focus and with a mission that gets me posting more often!  Your thoughts and advice about what to write about on CNReviews is welcome.

photo: CC courtesy of veen on flickr.

Forty years.

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. Feast your spherical peeps on a tightly summarized saga of four decades of delicious China watching, courtesy of retired UCLA scholar and eminent US Sinologist Richard Baum.

That’s essentially what you’re getting in this 296pp cut of around-the-horn PRC goodness, China Watcher: Confessions of a Peking Tom. Oh yes!

For the writer, it’s a veritable walk down memory lane which began right about the end of the chaotic Cult Rev years. Carrying through to Deng’s Reform and Opening years, it continued into the rip-roaring goodness of the Special Economic Zones/SEZ era.

Baum witnessed the Xidan Democracy Wall protests of the late ’70s, the acorn-collecting, squirrel-like saving eighties, the craven PLA turkey shoot on that enormous square in front of the ochre-colored Imperial complex bearing the portrait of that revolutionary dude (the same dude on the book cover above — and no, I’m not taking any sort of position whatsoever on the law-enforcing slaughter of hundreds of unarmed civilians), and Deng’s famous 1992 Southern Tour.

He wraps things up with China’s “in the wilderness” 1990s, its 2001 WTO ascension, the nation’s mid-naughts economic consolidations, the beginning of the Hu Jintao era, the SARS epidemic, the Sanlu milk scandal, the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, the Tibetan and Uighur riots of the same year, the glorious Olympic Games (China’s neo-adolescent “coming out party”), all the way up to the bright harmonious koombayah future — hexie shehui-style.

Baum, moderator of the famous Chinapol listserv, opted to compile a decidedly non-scholarly work of non-fiction this time ’round tailor-made for the Zhongguotong (China Hand) and layman alike. What an impressive piece of work indeed! If Baum doesn’t publish again for the rest of his academic career, China Watcher will have been a fitting cap on a marvelous career dash. Still, if he’s not into the whole swan song thing, rest assured the author can publish again and I’ll be right back here with yet another snappy review.

The book is organized chronologically and reads for the most part like an autobiography.

While not clinging rigidly to the autobio genre nor being doctrinaire about time lines and similar nonsense, Baum leapfrogs across history, embellishing on lesser-known phases of China’s magical development story for the benefit of readers who aren’t as well-versed in Sinology, writ large .

While you’ll likely have heard of the bulk of events Baum faithfully transcribes, I was grateful for his “five sides of the coin” elaboration on stuff that’s now become lore in the Western contemporary historical canon. Examples? The aftermath of the Shanghai Communique of 1972, the on-again, off-again China-Taiwan kerfuffle, not to mention the months, weeks, and days leading up to that human cull which took place in that square in a certain northern capital on that certain summer day back in 1990 less one year. ;-)

What Baum does excellently in China Watcher is supply a wide-angle lens treatment to the major events of the past four decades, the sorts of things only a person who was actually on the ground at the time can write about credibly. Imagine getting the fly-on-the-wall play-by-play half-an-hour before the recording of the Zapruder film, and you’ll readily realize what I mean.

Rather than replicate Angilee Shah‘s stellar June 2010 review at China Beat, I thought I’d do another one of my famous chapter-by-chapter breakdowns for what’s quickly becoming a twenty-ten must-read.

CHAPTER LISTING:

1) The Occidental Tourist: Nice play on words here about the famous 1988 film. Baum describes in this chapter how he actually “fell” into China studies, rather than actively pursuing career Sinology. It all began as a dare to prove to his father wrong that the Chairman wasn’t anything like Stalin, that Mao was up to something better with his new movement. Like a good movie script, this was the inciting incident of Baum’s fateful meeting with noted UC Berkley China experts Bob Scalapino and Chalmers Johnson. Baum would never look back…

2) A Dissertation Is Not a Dinner Party: In 1966, Baum boarded a trans-Pacific flight with his then-wife Carolyn and infant son Matthew in tow, landing on the rainswept island of Taiwan, or what was then referred to as the Republic of China/ROC. As part of his dissertational studies, Baum was obliged to undergo intensive Mandarin training in Taipei as he boned up on his research methodologies. Basically, his writ was to glean as much information as possible about the PRC in the days before free visits to China were restricted only to “friends of China.” Lots of Hong Kong stuff features in this chapter. Baum got close to the People’s Republic, but didn’t get the PRC cigar. Peering over into the fishing village of Shumchun (then-Shenzhen), he longed to see the Chinese up close and personal though it wasn’t to be. For those keen on reading what Taiwan was like under dictatorship (and a KMT/GMD intelligence dragnet), this is your chapter!

3) Confessions of a Peking Tom: A key chapter colored by the backdrop of the higher-level political machinations which took place at the chaotic end of the Mao era. China opens itself to the world with the official exchange of diplomats between the US and China. The Kissinger-Nixon-Mao confabs, the changing of the Zhongnanhai guard, the trial of the Gang of Four (boo!), the Hua/Deng rivalry (yay!), and finally, Baum’s heartfelt admission about his bitter academic rivalries fomented around this time that would dog him for the rest of his academic career. We track with Baum as his renown swells within “China watching” circles, and he peppers us for the first time with his limerick-spinning abilities that were used like poison-tipped projectiles to offend his most stalwart detractors back in the day. Funny!

4) Through the Looking Glass: Baum enters China for the first time, crossing over the Friendship Bridge (HK’s Lowu crossing) in May 1975 along with a delegation of “95 of the world’s fastest, strongest athletes.” Just like that, he was suddenly inside. The delegation visited three large Chinese cities: Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing during the competitions, and it was great to read what those places looked and sounded like back in the late seventies. Communist Party (CCP) political machinations reverberate behind-the-scenes as Baum visits various scenes of past Chinese Cult Rev crimes. There are banquets, social customs, and Maoist political doggerel galore!

5) Democracy Deferred: The death of Mao. The rise of Hua, then Deng. China closes the books on 1966-1976′s Cultural Revolution. The Xidan (Democracy) wall. Democracy posters and placards. Civil unrest. Baum’s second and third trips to China, this time as a full-fledged accredited academic. The arrest of democracy advocates Wei Jingsheng and Fu Yuehua, foreshadowing the more brutal clampdowns that are to come a decade later on that large square at the center of Beijing where students and academics went on long hunger strikes and then built this tall statue thingy to commemorate a certain non-existent aspirational Chinese political ideology and then “taken away.” You know the place I’m talking about, right?

6) Capitalism With Chinese Characteristics: From ’84 to the late 1990s, Baum lectured aboard a Chinese cruise ship that would ply the country’s eastern seaboard. He was in China often to witness first-hand its workforce’s rapid evolution from a gaggle of faceless employees at state-owned factories (SOEs) to the nascent getihu entrepreneurs. Baum tells of the rabble-rousing CCP reformers Fang Lizhi and Hu Yaobang, and the CCP’s desire to avoid a catastrophic meltdown as had been steadily affecting the USSR. Then…the early days of those fateful big square demonstrations by Chinese students during that year’s spring. You know what I’m talking about, right?

7) The Road to Tiananmen: In February 1989, Baum is hastily flown to Camp David along with several prominent US Sinologists to debrief then-President Bush (I) about the latter’s upcoming China visit. He’s asked about the wisdom of inviting dissident Fang Lizhi to the US Embassy’s sponsored banquet. Baum vociferously advises against it — Fang’s a marked man, he tells the President’s handlers. But to no avail. The White House invites Fang anyways, but he’s prevented from attending the dinner by the Sinostapo. Later in May of that year, Chinese student protests commence in earnest in the Square, heralding worse things to come. Soviet Premier Mihail Gorbachev‘s visit to Beijing is a pretext for students to clamor for greater political freedoms. The poop is almost ready to hit the Chinese fan. D’oh!

8) After the Deluge: The human cull happens. Fish in a barrel. Blood everywhere. International censure. Hell breaks loose in the PRC. Baum is bravely back in China by August 1989 and the country is under total dissident lockdown. Baum-er can’t get an honest word in edgewise about the spring’s events nor from any of the Chinese academics or CCP members who agree to meet him. They feel compelled to senselessly blather the government line, doing so for the “benefit” of their prominent foreign academic guest. It frustrates him, especially the faux-exhibits to the glory of the PLA he’s taken to during this trip. Excellent p152 breakdown of the various stages of Chinese “friendship or enmity” (friend, friendly personage/youhao renshi, “those who really love China but know all the vices of Chinese communism/not easily fooled,” “those people who love China but hate Chinese communism,” and lastly, “those who either didn’t know or didn’t care much about China”).

9) China Rising: Explosive growth of the Chinese economy in the wake of the month after May on the day after the 3rd, er…Incident (wink, wink). The fall of Soviet and Eastern European “Communism” for all-time. The Velvet Revolution and the bloodless handover of power in in the Eastern Bloc nations. China makes a Faustian bargain with its citizens: we continue to pump through strong economic growth and a life of wealth and privilege for you and your families, but you leave the governing and statesmanship to crooked us. The handover of British HK to China in 1997. Former HK Governor Chris Patten flipping the bird to Beijing. The NATO/US bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, 1990. W.’s first Presidential term, and what that suddenly means for Sino-US relations.

10) God in the Machine: The rapidly improving state of the Chinese telecommunication network — especially mobile — and the origins of the Great Firewall of China. Pernicious Internet censorship and the more than 100,000 cops who monitor the Chinese internet daily. Forbidden search phrases, taboo web pages, and restricted foreign sites. Jing Jing and Cha Cha reminding Chinese netizens that certain material is potentially objectionable. The origins of Richard Baum’s Chinapol news group, with more than 900 subscribers in twenty-five countries throughout the Americans, Europe, Asia, and Australasia (and I quote from p178: 397 scholars, 262 journalists, 98 NGO and think tank analysts, 96 diplomats and government analysts, and a scattering of independent consultants, international lawyers, and others). Internet activism, Chinese-style!

11) The Wild, Wild West: In July 2001, Baum casts off for his first trip to Western China. He meets up with Kevin Stuart, who teaches English to a group of upwardly-mobile Tibetans out of his Xining, Qinghai apartment. Stuart is organizing a school for local kids who are game to improve their English speaking skills. Baum returns the following July 2002 “to visit five western Chinese provinces by air, train, bus, boat, taxi, and on foot,” toting along eight UCLA undergraduates, three graduate students, plus three faculty members to man the school in Xining where Stuart has set up shop. Baum witnesses first-hand China’s Great Western Development and how slow the process has been taking to get western Chinese incomes to rise to the level of those in its eastern cities. He’s warmly welcomed by the various Tibetan communities he meets along the way and is dismayed to witness how condescending the Han majority — specifically Beijing — is with its Naxi, Tibetan, and Mangghuer minorities, likening them to “little children needing the guidance of their Han parent.” The first rumblings of the riots which will soon rock Tibet and Xinjiang throughout most of 2008.

12) Beijing Revisited: Baum is back in Beijing during the fall of 2005 to collaborate in the establishment and running of the Joint Center for International Studies (JCIS) at Beijing’s Beida (Peking University) along with Professor Jing Qingguo. He inspires his Chinese students to read material that challenges the CCP line and inspires several of his students — which Baum discovers years later — to think divergently about the events that transpired at the end of the previous century. Baum also witnesses the massive changes which have taken place in Beijing since his last visit during the mid-’90s: the construction boom, the astronomical price of real estate, the hazardous pollution and atrocious air quality, and the manner in which the Party deals with annoying citizens standing in the way of its bold economic plans. The construction campaign for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is now in full swing.

13) China Watching, Then and Now: Admittedly, this was the most boring chapter of Baum’s entire work. Baum goes over the history of “China watching” as a career activity, recalling the centers where China watchers once reviewed the best material on offer about the PRC before free travel to China commenced in the 1970s. He talks about how some former hardcore Maoist ideologues have now recanted their ostensibly erroneous ways and the ramifications it has had for their academic careers and lives. Baum also complains about the current crop of China watching recruits, how they differ from his day and why. He maintains an undecided opinion about the state of contemporary Sinology. You decide.

14) The Gini in the Jar: This penultimate chapter was, conversely, the most interesting of the entire book. In it, Baum discusses the financial and societal costs of China’s sudden explosive growth during Reform and Opening, and selects Shenzhen as a ready example of what he means. Baum also reviews the state of you know what kind of rights legislation in China, and about the legacy of the human cull in that Square from a couple of decades back — you know which one I’m talking about. Bolstering his argument are a range of different statistics which point to the storm clouds gathering on the PRC’s horizon, and what could occur if the economy suddenly tanks and Beijing can no longer fulfill its promises to constituents about their collective future security. Will the whole edifice come crashing down? Will there be massive civil unrest? Baum’s views are worth a read.

15) Loose Ends: Anything which somehow wasn’t resolved in any the previous chapters is dealt with — just as the chapter’s name indicates — here. In case you were wondering what befell some of his colleagues, comrades, and fellow academics over the intervening years, Baum hammers through the list of notable personages we’d read about in previous sections, tying things up nicely. There was the divorce with Carolyn, the arrival of his grandchildren, and his future prospects.

The book’s final paragraph is a fitting bookend to this exquisite chronicle. I’ll quote it here in its entirety in closing (p291):

Blessed with an inquisitive nature, outstanding role models, rich opportunities, and abundant good fortune, as a young man I became powerfully drawn to the lure of contemporary China. Almost from my first classroom encounter with Arthur Steiner, China has been my passion, my calling, my own personal Shangri-la and Chimera rolled into one. Although three decades of economic reform and global engagement have made China’s political and social reality far more accessible — and far less bizarre — then they were in Mao’s time, the People’s Republic remains for me a profound puzzle. Ever changing, ever fascinating, and ever frustrating, it compels my attention even as it stubbornly defies comprehension. I cannot look away.

So what do you say? Will you be acquiring your copy of China Watcher today?

(The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers, by Richard McGregor, 273pp)

It’s depressing to realize how 273 tiny pages can raise the ire of the humongous Chinese Communist Party and kick up such a colossal domestic fuss, yet veteran journalist Richard McGregor‘s latest work of investigative prose succeeded in doing exactly that.

Going deep behind Zhongnanhai “enemy lines” in a way few foreign scribblers or Zhongguotong — those cliched “Old China Hands” — would ever dare to (on fear of reprisals from PRC authorities), McGregor serves up a red hot zinger of an indictment on the inner-workings of China’s Big Red Machine, the party tugging the levers of power inside the authoritarian capitalist country.

The book is the work of more than a decade of silent toil and research by the relentless Australian, a journalist who traveled to and fro between the PRC, Hong Kong, and his native Land of Oz, with family in tow, as he compiled interview after painstaking off-the-record interview for this comprehensive tell-all.

To be sure, The Party‘s already been banned across China; yet, then again, we fully expected it would be and, come to think of it, doesn’t it kind of add to its cachet in a very Zhao Ziyang-esque sort of way (let us know in the comments below!).

What kind of illicit treasures can be found inside this latest oeuvre of CCP criticism, you ask? What in tarnation is so taboo, you want to know? I mean, what exactly is the Central Committee so goshdarn afraid of?

All good starting questions…

McGregor — like other so-called “China experts” — knows several of the answers. All of this tracks back to that “sum of all fears” for the Chinese Communist Party: the fear of losing total control of the state apparatus and helplessly witnessing as the nation-state reverts back into the pre-revolutionary Armageddon-like times which reigned supreme during Chiang’s rule.

The CCP, oddly enough, permits practically anything and everything that doesn’t directly clash with its interests or harm its preeminent position within Chinese society.

This is the reason why, for instance, visitors to China can observe such things as LGBT bars in the ‘jing, yet no organized national gay pride parade exists for China. This is also the reason why Chinese citizens are legally permitted to freely practice their chosen form of religion…provided they link up with one of China’s wholly (holy?) state-sponsored places of worship, be it a church, a mosque, or a Buddhist shrine. Say you’re a Roman Catholic? No problemo, provided you don’t recognize the Pontiff as your spiritual shogun with the lone direct hookup to the Man Upstairs. A proud and practicing Muslim? Cool beans, so long as you don’t buy into the drivel Rebiya Khadeer has been popularizing in the Western mass media. And, oh yeah, you can’t be a member of that group with its first initial before the letter “G.”

The basic “silent agreement” between the State and these various religious acolytes is that all must avoid demonstrating for greater faith-based openness in that Big Square which sprawls out in front of the Forbidden City — yeah, that one. Or else!

Crazy Eights:

McGregor unfurls his argument in eight exquisite chapters. He deems these to be the eight key areas in which the CCP’s influence pervades Chinese society. In order:

1. The CCP’s relationship towards the Chinese State.
2. The CCP’s capitalist leanings in the wake of the Deng-era (aka, “China Inc.”).
3. The CCP’s iron-fisted control of its personnel files.
4. The CCP’s relationship towards the People Liberation Army (PLA).
5. The CCP’s total dominance by “The (notorious) Shanghai Gang.”
6. The CCP’s relationship with towns and regions far away from Beijing.
7. The CCP’s capitalist shell surrounding its so-called “socialist” core.
8. Tombstone:  The book which revealed the true death toll from Mao’s Great Leap Forward (>30 million citizens).

Salient Points:

Rather than supply a detailed breakdown of all eight chapters — thereby ruining the fun for you, dear reader, as you track down your illicit copy of The Party — why don’t I summarize what you can expect to find in each, thereby whetting your chops for the bigger feast to come?

1. The CCP’s relationship towards the Chinese State: Nothing that happens in China occurs without the CCP’s blessing. Any organization, body, association, business, and/or any dealing with any foreign power — either in the Southeast Asian region or internationally — always occurs via the CCP’s direct intervention. Party membership is coveted by business types as it affords them access and needed connections. The Party bills itself as the preeminent force preventing China from teetering back into Century of Humiliation-like anarchy. Like an octopus, and in emulation of Lenin’s dictates about the Communist Party of the Soviet Union being everywhere at all times, the CCP penetrates every facet of Chinese society.
2. The CCP’s capitalist leanings in the wake of the Deng-era (aka, “China Inc.”): Being accepted into the CCP’s ranks is no mere ideological progression. Rather, it’s a step up the ladder of corporate and commercial success in China. Former State-owned enterprises that were gradually privatized are still run by a silent cabal of Party loyalists who duly take their instructions from on high in Beijing, despite any decisions these firms’ various boards of directors or CEOs might make regarding the strategic direction of the company they preside over. The Party always has final say. And a company director can always be overruled by the most senior Party member on the board. CEOs carrying membership also receive the coveted “red hotline” in their offices, the direct line from Beijing. Their phone numbers are so exclusive, that they’re limited to just four digits. And when that red box rings, you better pick up.
3. The CCP’s iron-fisted control of its personnel files: Being in total command of information flows is also a key CCP characteristic: all the better to avoid unexpected media leaks or to parties with an aim to toppling the CCP’s legitimacy via a coup. Personnel files are fiercely guarded in Beijing-area buildings that don’t even carry distinctive visitor-friendly markings on the outside. The merits and demerits of its several thousand members — hand-written on paper cards — still remains one of the nation’s most fiercely guarded secrets. The Party uses these cards to award concessions, favors, or privileges or to dole out punishment to its adherents and members.
4. The CCP’s relationship towards the People Liberation Army (PLA): The PLA exists solely to safeguard the Party, not the Chinese people and neither the integrity of the Chinese state. Believe me when I tell you these various strapping youths are expressly recruited for their stature and capacity to intimidate. I witnessed with my own eyes how these Tiananmen Guards strike fear into thousands of onlookers because at whose behest they serve (i.e. the Party’s). The PLA remains the Party’s vanguard force, tasked with protecting the Party from all threats both from within and from without.
5. The CCP’s total dominance by “The (notorious) Shanghai Gang:” Former Chinese President Jiang Zemin was the exemplar of the might of Shanghai politics in the Communist Party’s upper ranks. Once he become President back in October 1992, Jiang moved quickly to entrench Shanghai’s position amongst the capital’s power elites. Shanghai went from being the bastard child of the new People’s Republic — the city most despised by the Communist Party for all it represented during the interwar period — to a thriving, thoroughly-modern colossus. It’s no mere coincidence that Shanghai and its gorgeous Bund views are the most recognizable thing about China outside of the Forbidden City and the Great Wall.
6. The CCP’s relationship with towns and regions far away from Beijing: The infamous Sanlu (“Three Deers”) melamine scandal, in which a form of plastic was added in lieu of protein to bolster the consistency of this company’s milk is a recent example of this. Regional Party members seek to leverage their power within rural Party fiefdoms strictly for gain. It’s what one anonymous Chinese blogger called the “black-collar class: their cars are black. Their income is hidden. Their life is hidden. Their work is hidden. Everything about them is hidden, like a man wearing black, standing in the black of the night.” A ranking compiled by most popular Chinese portal sina.com of the numbers of people seeking information about particular government jobs revealed that “…of the top ten government bodies which received the most expressions of interest for positions, eight were provincial tax bureaux, topped by Guangdong, all of them along the prosperous coast; and two were customs bureaux of Shanghai and Shenzhen. The bottom ten which attracted the least interest, were all provincial statistics bureaux.” With Beijing so far from the regions, who notices when things go awry until it’s too late?
7. The CCP’s capitalist shell surrounding its so-called “socialist” core: The Party in 2010 isn’t the same Party of Mao. In fact, today’s CCP bears little resemblance to the revolutionary mass organization which won the hearts of WWII-weary Chinese citizens back in the late 1940s. This is a more business-oriented party. Fully corrupt. Swayed by profit. Droning on fulsomely about its socialist roots and leanings, meanwhile it erects ever-larger, ever more luxurious, and ever-megalomaniacal infrastructure projects across the breadth of China. Now that the government is flush with cash, it’s begun spending on the population: roads and hospitals, for instance, yet this is a relatively recent phenomenon.
8. Tombstone:  The book which revealed the true death toll from Mao’s Great Leap Forward (>30 million citizens): Tombstone: Yang Jisheng‘s account of the true death toll from the Great Leap Forward. A fitting end for The Party because of how it handily summarizes the main themes of the previous chapters: the CCP’s rigid control of information as it forged data about the Great Leap. How the regions were quick to avail themselves of their distance from Beijing to falsely report only information Beijing wanted to hear. How the Party sought to silence those who has the power to knock it off its pedestal. Yet this intrepid Xinhua journalist — yes, an insider! — devoted fifteen years of his life to meticulously notate over one thousand pages of stats from regional bureaus as the core material for his book. McGregor cites the (only Hong Kong, for now) publication of Tombstone as an example of how the Party appears to be morphing over time. Yang’s heretical work would have surely been destroyed — with Yang himself likely imprisoned or killed by the state — more twenty years ago. Does this seemingly permissive act hold out future promise for the Chinese Communist Party? McGregor appears to want his readers to decide.

Should You Buy This Book?

Yes! Just don’t get arrested buying it. There’s enough incendiary information contained within its pages to fully indict the Party for its misdeeds, sundry corruptions, and other flagrant recent abuses of power. Short of a few random hardcover copies flitting around Beijing-area indie bookshops, don’t expect to find this on Chinese bookshelves — either in its original English or in translation — anytime soon.

For any aspiring China Hand, amateur Sinologist, or Sinophile, The Party makes for deeply engaging fare.

But for all you vets out there, this book will only serve to reinforce the message you already know that the CCP isn’t a object to be trifled with.

(Bam Bam waving good-bye?)

The North Korean English-language blogosphere reported last week on the recent “significant breakthroughs” in US-North Korea relations. Brisk mentions were made of how these recent developments might be the final shove that topples North Korea from its illogical isolationist perch.

Articles and blogs were quick to bolster their strongly-worded arguments and sentiments with proof of recent events taking place along the peninsula over the past several months, events these bloggers and pundits claim prove conclusively that the time is ripe for a vigorous push by the US and South Korea to bring North Korea to heel and lure it once and for all into the international fold.

With Bam Bam’s condition weakening by the day and his restive population subsisting on a spartan diet of poor-quality foodstuffs — northern refugees to the South claim that starvation rations persist in certain parts of DPRK — North Korea, yet again, is decimating itself from within.

Basically, say these bloggers, journalists, and pundits, this may spell the end of North Korea as we know it…

What Are Those “Recent North Korean Developments” — A Review:

Plenty of stuff’s been happening since May 2009, to wit…

• The nuclear tests of May of that year: This was the event which kickstarted North Korea’s year-long-plus downward spiral into the mire. Last time Bam Bam issued the order to detonate something was way back in October 2006, and, of course, he apologized profusely for having done so, claiming that he’d be perfectly willing to make a few compromises, if only the US would make some key compromises first. Same old story. Same old outcome.
• November 2009′s release of the captive US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee: the pair were released from North Korean captivity on August 4, 2009 following Former President Clinton’s whirlwind 2-day emergency intervention tour to Pyongyang. This too represented something of an opening. A willingness – in North Korean newspeak and gesturespeak — on the part of Pyongyang to deal with the West. It basically amounted to nothing. Two additional American missionaries still remain in North Korean custody, incidentally. They don’t have nearly the clout or influence of Ling and Lee.
• November 2009′s dramatic currency devaluation: Whole fortunes were wiped out in November 2009 at the stroke of a pen as the NK won was redenominated by a factor of 100. This was allegedly enacted in order to curtail the spate of private marketeering and other entrepreneurial activity that had sprouted up in recent years across DPRK, reluctantly tolerated by the regime. Kim and his hapless cronies (one of whom — Pak Nam-gi was subsequently put to death in March 2010 for the economic chaos which ensued) were basically looking to stick it to the rising NK moneyed class just to remind them who’s really in charge. The re-evaluation slammed North Korea’s already ailing destitute classes hardest.
• March 2010′s sinking of the corvette Cheonan: Then there was the sinking of the South Korean navy ship Cheonan, the blame for which a UN-sponsored commission of inquiry — with US, Australian, and Swedish participation — initially laid squarely on Pyongyang’s shoulders, only to later backpedal during the Security Council’s issuing of its toothless “presidential statement.” It merely alluded to North Korea’s involvement, using the diplomatically-chosen words that it “Takes Note of Neighbour’s Response Denying Responsibility for Sinking” — the “Neighbour” of course being DPRK. This has had repercussions all around the region as first China was obviously unwilling to point the finger at its erstwhile ally, and then Russia — conducting its own independent inquiry — also joined the chorus of doubters as to who was responsible for the action. In the latter case, economics seems to be the clear motivating factor.
• Kim Jong-il’s “Secret” May 2010 trip to China: We’re left wondering what this meeting entai led? What did Kim talk about with Chinese President Hu Jintao? Did Kim travel to Beijing to receive instructions from the Chinese on how best to deal with the US in the wake of the Cheonan‘s sinking? Was he called out onto the mat to explain his country’s apparent belligerence? Was he given strict succession instructions from the Chinese? Did Hu promise to look after the heir apparent Kim Jong-un once Bam Bam was good and gone, to ensure that the Americans wouldn’t have their way with him? Here, here, and here are several possible scenarios…
• World Cup 2010: Following an impressive 2-1 stonewalling the mighty Brazilians (in which NK lost honorably), the country’s squad went on to get annihilated in its second game — 7-0 — against the Portuguese and then lost convincingly — 3-0 — against the Ivoreans to bow out of the tournament’s Round of 32. Were North Korea to have done well at the tournament, it might have generated a whole mass of goodwill. But it wasn’t to be.
• June 2010′s willingness to talk…again: North Korea announced its willingness last month to join a UN-sponsored forum to “discuss” its chronic domestic health problems, all under US auspices. Why this was significant was because the US refused to place NK on the list of terrorist-sponsoring states a second time following the country’s October 11, 2008 removal from that same list. The White House is very reluctant to add NK back for two primary reasons: a) blame for the Cheonan‘s sinking is not conclusive, ergo, it isn’t NK’s direct fault for certain, and b) China is totally against an escalation of hostilities on the peninsula whatsoever, and the Obama Administration isn’t going down that rabbit hole, for now.
• Calls to boot NK out of the United Nations: Certain pundits, namely journalist-in-residence Claudia Rosett of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, recently listed the litany of ways in which Kim Jong-il’s regime has violated the various sacred tenets of the UN Charter, He, therefore, she claims, has abrogated North Korea’s sovereign right to remain a member of the weak-kneed international body as a result. Rosett’s opinion perhaps remains a minority one for now, but as this rumor picks up velocity in the echo chamber, look to have more pundits and journalists calling for Kim’s head on a silver platter. It’s a well-written piece with a cogent argument and I fully recommend the read.
• Possible Ressurrection of the North-South Sunshine Policy? Ever since South Korea forbade its citizens from visiting North Korea’s Kumgang resort following July 11, 2009′s shooting of a 53 year-old female ROK tourist in so-called “no-man’s land,” the Sunshine Policy of the early naughts has been — for all intents and purposes — moribund. However, a recent Christian Science Monitor article (nice going Douglas Kirk!) suggests movements are underway in South Korea to involve the Chinese in a revitalized “sunshine-esque policy” that may coax NK back to the bargaining table. We’ll see…
• Will Kim Jong-un nominally take over in September 2010? The Korean Workers Party (KWP) Congress set for this September promises to be “historical.” It’s expected that Bam Bam will take the opportunity here to formally announce to the rest of the nation and the world that his son is to become the country’s next hereditary leader. Jong-un will likely be awarded with increased security responsibilities and a rash of public face time, yet even the experts are unsure what may become of him. If the military doesn’t stand behind him — as evidenced by the Cheonan‘s mysterious sinking — there may be more than just a palace coup come September.

So what now?

Following November 2009′s currency devaluation, North Koreans are once again starving.Food — and money to buy it — is scarce again, and the regime is getting ultra nervous.

Around two million (!!!) people died — according to certain statistics — during the mid-1990′s famine following the end of Soviet-sponsorship on the Kim Farm. North Koreans aren’t going to tolerate yet another famine now that its society is increasingly savvy to what’s happening outside of the DPRK’s borders, especially along the border regions with China and the Russian Federation, thanks to mobile phones and traffic around the Tumen and Yalu crossings.

Bam Bam’s bombastic sloganeering and the regime’s overall attempts to mollify the populace aren’t going to work a second time.

(NK propaganda about the Cheonan?)

This likely explains why Bam Bam has escalated his son’s succession to the super fast track.

This also likely explains the recent spate of postering in Pyongyang (as shown above) depicting a possible retaliation against a “Cheonan“-like ship (“If she comes, we will attack it!” it says) in order supply more distracting belligerent fodder for a population finding itself at wit’s end.

There are even some North Koreans who crave a second round of warfare, just to put a decisive end, once and for all, to their miserable living conditions vis-a-vis the South.

If something suddenly happens, you’ll be the first to know here.

North Koreans plan, Bam Bam laughs.



This article appeared originally at North Korea Blues

Steven Weathers

As someone interested in the Shanghai Expo, I started streaming videos from ICS or International Channel Shanghai online for their EXPO 360° shows. [Our dorm has television, but we have to pay for connection. Ugh.] The segment actually has a lot of hosts (both locals and foreigners) who goes inside the different pavilions and just tours the audience. One of the hosts, Steven Weathers, is this friendly dude who is always enthusiastic on cam.

I do not usually meet TV personalities in person; because well, they are supposed to stay behind the cameras. Heh. And I honestly think they run around places all day getting the scoop on things to film or talk about. But Steven Weathers was different as he actually had time to talk about what he does for a living (even if I think it gets repetitive already for him).

So we agreed to meet in Yogo Juice near West Nanjing Road Station. Steven arrived carrying his MacBook Air [which looks really sleek by the way]. Apparently, he was doing the finishing touches for a voice over while walking all the way from the studio. That level of multitasking? I don’t think I could do that.

Expotia wrote a quick bio of Steven Weathers in their blog giving him the title of Best Expo Job Contender. That alone made me all the more intrigued. Videos of his EXPO 360° shows are also posted in the Expotia blog.

For laowais who have thought about breaking into the China scene, Steven Weathers can be said to be a model of sorts. And yes, pun totally intended.

CNR: Tell me about your love affair with China.

Steven Weathers: I love traveling. I went to graduate school in St. Andrews, Scotland. It was cheaper back then to travel on vacations, and we have 3 or 4 week vacations. So rather than buying a ticket back home to America, I would travel to Europe and saw almost all European countries. I have always loved international cultures and meeting new people and assimilating. My first trip to China was in 1998. I came with a tour group for about 2 weeks traveling to Beijing and Xian. And I loved China. The people in the tour group said that in 10 years I would be here and work here in China. And I laughed at them and thought they were crazy.

But I started thinking about it. I had a company that time that was into marketing and advertising. I enjoyed it immensely. Same projects every day. Seven days a week. I was a workaholic. But I missed living overseas. So I started looking into China, because it was slated to be a world leader in the future. So I came 2005.

CNR: Wow, just 5 years ago.

Steven: Yup, only 5 years. I am fairly new compared to other foreigners I have met who have been here 15 to 20 years.

CNR: How did you start with ICS then?

Steven: Good question. My first year in China was not in Shanghai. It was in a city called Luoyang in Henan Province. I was there a year as an English teacher. I enjoyed that experience immensely. It was very quiet, and it gave me the chance to learn Chinese quickly as compared to learning in a big city. I was very isolated. We were only 6 foreigners at that time among 6 million people. It was unlike Shanghai or Beijing where you have dozens of foreigners. So I leaned Chinese more quickly at that time. But I knew I wanted to go to Beijing or Shanghai. So after 1 year, I had an opportunity to teach at Shanghai Normal University where I taught marketing and advertising and British and American literature.

After that, I immediately got pulled into the media industry. A foreign friend of mine whose wife is a Chinese agent helped me get into projects. I was soon involved in 40 commercials, music videos, and TV series.

CNR: Ok, stupid question. You were in the commercials, right? Not behind the scenes.

Steven: In the commercials as an actor. I was with Stephanie Sun from Singapore and Yang Lan. That was with the oolong cha commercial. Also Jacky Cheung. I was also in an S.H.E music video. These are all gigs that happened between 2006 and 2008.

By 2008, I auditioned for a TV series called 蜗居 (Wo Ju); and I did not know anything about it. I just knew they were looking for a foreigner learning Chinese. And there was another foreigner learning Chinese who auditioned. He has the perfect Chinese. But he did not get in, and I got in. So I asked why. I heard the director say it was because my Chinese was not very good!

CNR: How is your Chinese right now?

Steven: 现在我的中文还不行。但是我听得懂80%-90%。[Right now, my Chinese is not very good. But I can understand 80% to 90% of the time.]

CNR: 哇， 你很棒！[Wow, you’re great!--I just love saying that.]

Steven: No, no, no. 马马虎虎吧。[So-so.] So I could learn Chinese through the script in 蜗居. After that I was in Du Lala Sheng Zhi Ji (Go Lala Go!) , and I played Du Lala’s boss Howard. That was just recently.

ICS came onto the scene about a year and a half ago. I was a host of a government video on the Expo explaining Expo online. I was chosen by the government to be that host.  It’s a video you could still find on the Internet. And ICS saw that and liked it. At the same time, I had my own series called老外实现 (Foreigner’s Perspective) and had made 3 episodes and put them on the Internet and a number of producers saw that. You could also see that over at the Internet.  I have 20 episodes of those. It is self-produced, self-acted, self-edited, self-everything. One-man show. All over China. Travel features. Culture features. And ICS producers saw those as well and said, “Get in here!” And after that, the ball rolled quickly, and I had many opportunities to host in ICS.

CNR: I saw your videos on the Expo. Do you write your own script?

Steven: Sometimes we have a shot list. So there is an editor for each of the features. That’s not me. It’s the director. And they will prepare a rough script or an outline. But often I use my own language. I script it as we go. Just because I have to discover the pavilion and quickly synthesize the information and give it back to the video. Sometimes we have a script, sometimes we don’t.

CNR: What are your views on the Expo? What was your initial reaction and right now?

Steven: Well, my initial reaction was I was excited about it because I have been to a world expo in 1982 in America . It was in Knoxville, Tennessee. Small world’s fair. But I remember I was only a child. I went with my family and some family friends. I remembered seeing the USA pavilion had a new technology called a “touch screen”.  That was so exciting! That was put up by Apple computer. And now we all have Apple phones, and we all touch the screens.  You know it’s cool 20 years later, 25 years later that we have technology like that in our pockets. I remember things like that.  So I thought the Shanghai Expo is going to show us some cool new technology. It’s going to be a chance to see other cultures. I had no idea 25 years later I would be that involved in this world’s expo and seeing cultural performances and taking part in them.

CNR: Any bad thoughts on it? Because well, it’s crowded.

Steven: Yeah…a lot of people say 人山人海. People mountain people sea. And some days that’s true. Huge tour buses arrive from other provinces. But one of the secrets I’ve found is not to follow the crowds. Go to joint pavilions. The joint pavilions are those pavilions with several countries inside. Hardly any lines in those places. I don’t think it’s worth the wait to see the huge pavilions for 2, 3 hours!

CNR: But you’re from the media. You get to skip the lines.

Steven: I’ve waited in lines. Because after filming I oftentimes go around on my own. And you’re right, I haven’t had to wait for the large pavilions. But when I go inside, I don’t think they’re anymore special than the smaller pavilions. They may be larger. But they’re no more special.

CNR: So after the Expo, what are your plans?

Steven: That’s a great question! And it’s a good time to ask. Because I’m planning a new show after the Expo. It’s going to be an entertainment show.  But I don’t want to share too much about it. It’s going to be a surprise!

Here are Steven’s top 5 Expo tips (especially for us at CNReviews!).

1. Night Tickets: If you live in Shanghai, visit the Expo park in the evening. The weather is cooler, the crowds are fewer, and the lines are definitely shorter. I recently took my cousin to visit the park, and we didn’t have to wait for any pavilion. We saw 14, including Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Philippines and more.

2. International Treats: I don’t recommend taking food to the park, because there are many international flavors there. My favorite meal is next to the Africa Joint Pavilion in the African Cantine. The restaurant’s name is Hakuna Matata, and you can try an ostrich-meat meal for only 33 RMB.

3. Joint Pavilions: The best way to see many countries’ pavilions is visiting the joint pavilions like Africa, Asia, Europe, and Central & South America. The lines, if any, are very short, and you can feel like your on a fast-pass to world travel.

4. Easy Entry: If you live in Puxi, take the MaDang Road entrance with the metro right into the park. The security lines are short, and when you enter the park, you will be right in the middle of some great pavilions.

5. Coffee: If you’re a coffee lover like I am, try some of the world’s best coffees in Ethiopia (African Joint Pavilion), Ecuador (Central & South American Pavilion), Brazil, and ColumbiaDarn.

Was I starstrucked seeing ICS EXPO 360° man Steven Weathers? Well, not really. He was your regular TV host. But so down-to-earth and easy to talk to. However, I did wish I asked him more about S.H.E! Follow Steven Weathers on Twitter @sdweathers. See Steven Weathers’ EXPO 360° videos at Expotia.

(Truth to be told, it’s time for the first person.)

My goal: tweet the whole thing out, as I had done at tech events of years gone by — including 2009′s CHINICT. I’m still there tomorrow, so for live tweets of the entire event, follow @DavidFeng and @DavidFengTwo (Twitter can and has locked folks (like me) out who tweet too much over a given period of time). You can also go to techblog86.com or follow @techblog86 for updates — drafts of the tweets sent out in summary form will be posted at the end of every speech, and we’ll go through the cleaning up within the day to make it more legible.

Day 1 saw an upbeat kick-off to the event with Franck Nazikian (@franckn5) interviewing Aigo, who started out by making computer keyboards and is now onto the next-generation personal multimedia player (MP7s, anyone?). The showstealer, though, came in the afternoon, with Dave McClure (@davemcclure) and Mark Suster (@msuster) stealing the spotlight — after all, they came in all the way from America.

Full, complete coverage is available at techblog86: here comes the links for Day 1:

• Morning coverage: Kaixin001, Aigo, Wukong, Exmart, Borqs, Ushi.cn, Tencent

• Afternoon coverage: 3g.cn,Dave McClure, Mark Suster, KookyPanda, PPLive, Yeepay and 360.cn

The interviewers were mainly Franck Nazikian and Jeremy Goldkorn (who also did things in Chinese!). Lara Ferrar did the interview with Kaixin001. And, of course, TechCrunch TV and InformationWeek TV livestreamed the whole thing, as did Sina and local media.

The action continues tomorrow with Kai-Fu Lee kicking things off at 09:00 sharp. Stay tuned to techblog86 for more!

Today, April 21, 2010, is the National Mourning Day for the Yushu Earthquake victims as ordered by a State Council notice issued yesterday.

Urgent Notice From the Office of the Ministry of Culture Concerning the State Council Decision on “National Mourning Activities”

Notice is hereby made to all Provincial, Administrative Region, and Municipality-level Culture Departments, the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Culture Department, the Cultural Market Administrative Teams of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Chongqing, and all subordinate work unites:

To express the profound grief that people of all ethnic groups across the country feel for their compatriots who fell victim to the Yushu earthquake, the State Council has decided to hold a National Day of Mourning on April 21, 2010. Flags across the country and at overseas institutions will be lowered and all public entertainment activities will be suspended. To carry out the spirit of the State Council decision, notice is hereby made of the following measures:

1. According to the instructions in the State Council notice, culture administration departments at all levels across the country, general culture market administrative agencies, and culture work units that fly national flags will lower them to half-staff in mourning.

2. Departments and work units in the national culture system will suspend any entertainment activities they organize.

3. Cultural and entertainment venues across the country will suspend their entertainment activities. All cinemas and theaters, dance halls, recreation venues, and game rooms, as well as all culture centers (or cultural palaces or stations) and community activity centers will suspend all entertainment, performances, screenings, and gaming activities. Internet service providers will suspend all entertainment activities including games, music, and video. Online cultural operators will suspend all online music, online games, online animation, and online video.

4. Culture administration departments and general culture market administration agencies at all levels should carry out strict observation of how the cultural and entertainment venues and their operators implement the State Council’s decision, and shall deal with violators according to the law.

Office, Ministry of Culture

Baidu (And Select Websites Like Google, Etc.) In Mourning Clothes

Baidu published the following blog post yesterday April 20 7:46pm (translated excerpt):

The disaster is still there, but hope still exists. The Yushu Earthquake rescue is on its eighth day. Along the ruins of more than 20,000 square kilometers, the rescue team is suffering from altitude sickness and huge and dramatic temperature differences throughout the day and the night. They are racing with death and doing all they can to rescue each person fighting for their lives. Time does not allow us to slack-off as every minute is precious. At this point, we would like to hold-up the whole country.

Today, both in the North and the South, people young and old, all at the same time will observe a moment of silence. We will show our reverence all in the name of life. The mountains and the rivers will sob; the heavens and the earth will grieve. Today, the flag will be raised for those who died for the country. We will sound a mourning call for the victims.

People can still remember what Premier Wen Jiabao promised: make people’s lives happier and more dignified. In this national day of mourning, the victims can share the same promise. Our hearts pray that the deceased (in another world) will never face an unhappy situation.

Yushu will not fall.

Shanghai World Expo On Half-Mast

In its second day of test run, the Shanghai World Expo has instead stopped all activities in respect to the National Day of Mourning with all their flags on half-mast.

Other places of entertainment like movie houses and perfomance theaters were also ordered to stop or delay activities and issue refunds as needed.

Qinghai Pavilion (At the Expo China Pavilion) Offered “White Tears” For The Victims

The staff at the Qinghai Pavilion came together 10am this day too to mourn the victims of the Yushu Earthquake.

Fudan University Students Gathered Together To Mourn

Amidst the drizzle, five students from the Qinghai province sounded the bronze century bell today 7:49am. Afterwhich a three-minute moment of silence was followed.

Expo Volunteers Tied Yellow Ribbons

More than 400 Shanghai Jiaotong University students (who are also Expo volunteers) tied yellow ribbons on their arms to signify their mourning period.

“As volunteers, we not only strive to serve in the World Expo but also try to give more hope to the society through the harmonious and caring volunteer spirit,” student Tao Zhenhao said.

We have indeed gone together, during these two years. While thankful to our commenters and especially my fellow writers, I thought it would be worth sending link-love to the top 20 blogs that have linked to us and sent traffic our way.  In our peripatetic musings these past 2 years, they have offered us intellectual bread and water, gave us shelter, protected us from evil trolls, and otherwise kept us on our odyssey. Now if only we knew where we were going…

Thanks:

• EastSouthWestNorth (url: zonaeuropa.com) by Roland Soong – See Roland’s CNBloggerCon 2009 post on “Is Dialogue Possible?” and his 2008 CNBloggerCon prepared remarks.  Roland, we are fellow travelers on your journey to encourage East-West (and Mainland, HK, Taiwan) dialogue. Will Roland ever provide RSS feeds to all sections?  Time will tell.  Twitter: @eswn
• China Law Blog (CLB) by Dan Harris – Never thought I’d find a “law” blog interesting, but like a good lawyer, CLB goes beyond the law to highlight topics on China business and society that help those who do business in China or with Chinese partners.  In one sentence, I’d say CLB is about “sh1t that goes down in China and how you can avoid it.”  Consequently, this is an important blog to read! Twitter: @danharris
• chinaSMACK – IMHO, the launch of chinaSMACK is the most important event that has happened in the world of English-language China blogs in the last two years–who else new has expanded audience to English-language China blogs?  Why read something that resembles the college course on China you slept through, when you can indulge your inner voyeur by reading hot, viral stories in translation?  If you’re feeling 很黄很暴力 (hen huang hen baoli, very yellow very violent) come to chinaSMACK.  Then go to ChinaHush, who has gone beyond imitation to becoming a pitch-perfect complement (nice work, Key) to Fauna’s SMACK and in some ways even more interesting.  Fauna, when am I going to see more than 1/2 of your face?  You tantalize.  Twitter: @chinasmack
• Danwei (Chinese mirror Danwei.tv) – Sometimes a bit erudite for my techy, petty bourgeois tastes, Joel Martinsen, Alice Xin Liu, Eric Mu, and Jeremy Goldkorn do great work in bringing China to the world.  Too bad all the thanks they get is a nice URL block from the Net Nanny.  Lessons from observing Xu Zhiyong and Jeremy: no good deed goes unpunished in China.  Twitter: @danwei, @axliu, @goldkorn
• ChinaOnTV – Wasn’t expecting to see ChinaOnTV in our stats, but we had partnered with them to put together some interviews around May 2008. I also think they have a bug generating traffic in our direction!  Thanks for working with us, Johnson Q and Thalia! Twitter: @chinaontv
• China.Alltop.com – OK, its an 1-page China blog aggregator.  But we’ve been honored with above-the-fold linkage since the inception of the page.  So thanks Guy Kawasaki, Neenz Faleafine, and Christine Lu for your trust in us.  Twitter: @neenz, @christinelu, @guykawasaki
• The Peking Duck – Richard Burger’s blend of political, economic and social commentary is is many ways the archetypal China bridge blog.  Richard, I’ve learned a lot from you, and from the battle royale that often happens in your commentstream.  Twitter: @thepekingduck
• Shanghaiist – When we talk about what we want to be when we grow up, Shanghaiist often comes up. Elaine Chow, Cary Hooper, Kenneth Tan, and contributors, thanks.  Twitter: @shanghailaine, @shanghaiist, @singaporeano, @CaryHooper
• Fools Mountain -  The Yin to Peking Duck’s Yang, Fools Mountain contains political, cultural, social and economic commentary that some would consider to be largely “pro-China.”  Instead of the archetypal Western (mostly-male) blogger in China, Fools Mountain is mostly people (apparently mostly-male) of Chinese heritage living in the West.  Its an important blog that also has a very active commenter community.  Kudos to you:  Admin, BXBQ, Tang Buxi, and the rest of the blogging team.  Twitter: ????
• Wangjianshuo – I consider Jianshuo to be one of my blogging mentors, and have enjoyed following his blog since about 2005.  My original desire was to build CN Reviews into a blog community of both native English speakers and native Chinese speakers like Wang Jianshuo who blog in English.  But with 338 million Intenet users, there appears to be only one (or maybe a small handful) of Wangjianshuo’s.   Anyway, many thanks for your encouragement and your friendship.  Twitter: @jianshuo
• Wall Street Journal China Real Time Report – The China Real Time Report nee China Journal is probably the best China business blog run by a mainstream media outlet.  The Wall Street Journal also has some of the best overall China coverage out there.  Folks I follow online and in print:  Andrew Batson, Sky Canaves, Loretta Chao, Ian Johnson, Shai Oster, Juliet Ye. Twitter: @ChinaRealTime,  @WSJChina, @skycita, @AndrewBatson
• ChinaGeeks – We’ve already made clear our bromatic feelings for fellow blogger Charles Custer, of China Geeks, and his compadre Chris Hearne.  ChinaGeeks is the up-and-coming commentary blog of the China blogosphere.  Charter 08, Racism in China, Hu Yaobang, Ai Weiwei, May Fouth, Gaokao in translation, Chinese patriotism…I especially appreciated your perspective in the month prior to the 20th anniversary of the TAM incident.
• Global Voices Online China – GVO just turned five…congratulations!  Read their story over at co-founder Rebecca MacKinnon’s blog RConversation or over at Global Voices itself.  Some folks that have done good work at GVO China: Bob Chen, Oiwan Lam, John Kennedy, and many newer contributors that I’m not that familiar with.
• China Digital Times (CDT) – Led by Sophia Beach and Xiao Qiang, CDT is an aggregator blog that covers a broad range of social and political topics about China. Twitter: @CDTimes, @CDT
• James Fallows – He’s provided a nuanced perspective on China to Western audiences.  I especially appreciated his series on Gaokao that gave me some insights into the Chinese educational system.  I also appreciated his perspective on Chinese diversity, individualism, internal political competition within the Party, relative openness of the Chinese economy in contrast to other East Asian economies, etc. in this Aspen Ideas Festival exchange between him and Chimerica-fearmongering, castle-owning Niall Ferguson (video).  Honestly, I am trying to get through Niall’s arrogant style to get to the substance of his argument, which is worthy of some consideration.
• Time’s China Blog -  This blog shut down 9/18 (see Simon Elegant’s farewell post with comments replete with haters and spam).  Thanks for your support.  Twitter: @austinramzy
• Lost Laowai (LLW) – Mostly the brainchild of Ryan McLaughlin, LLW is a group blog serving the expat community in China.  Thanks, Ryan! Twitter: @lostlaowai, @thehumanaught
• GraniteStudio – Jeremiah, thanks for including us in your 以文會友 list!  GraniteStudio is wide-ranging and provides a historical perspective to current events.  Twitter: @GraniteStudio
• Imagethief – Will Moss brings humor, good-hearted irreverance and general interestingness to the often heavy topic of US-China relations and mainstream media gaffes on both sides of the Pacific.  Twitter: @imagethief
• Ifgogo.com – Guo Qirui (aka Aw Guo, or Awflasher) started this group blog to encourage Chinese to blog in English.  Over the years, I’ve become friends with several authors:  Lisa Lee, Cat Chen, and Aw himself.  I wish there were more Chinese bloggers Twitter: @awflasher, @CatChen

Thanks!

Gansu Expressway photo courtesy: Chinadaily BBS

I love British people or, rather, I love British humor…which is a little ironic since I seem to get a disproportionate amount of British people who hate me and stalk me around the China blogs I frequently comment on, itching to flame me for something or another. Paul Carr, former columnist for The Guardian and a weekly writer on staff for top-tech-blog TechCrunch, is one of those British people with the British wit I so very much love, and is definitely one of my favorite reads each week.

This week, Mr. Carr takes to task Brazilians and Americans in a post aptly titled, “WITN?: Brazil nuts, American idiots and whoever else I have to upset around here to keep my job“. In short, he bitingly ridicules the Brazilians who took offense a complaint by fellow TechCrunch writer Sarah Lacy (whom we’ve mentioned before here on CNR) over Brazil repeatedly failing to deliver her approved visa, the visa she needs to travel to the country and do research and reporting on Brazil’s tech start-up industry. He also castigates Americans for their general paranoia regarding the safety of foreign countries, albeit somewhat vindicating the premise with an undeniably true observation. He says a lot more, dressing the entire post with layers upon layers of multi-faceted, humorous, even poignant points.

TechCrunch is, of course, not a blog about China and Mr. Carr’s post is not a post about China. However, in the spirit of being mindful of ourselves before being too mindful of others that I like to bludgeon CNR readers with, I felt his post was both tangentially relevant enough and entertaining enough to link to here.

It is difficult to appreciate Mr. Carr’s humor without reading in the context of his entire post, but here’s an excerpt containing the above quote:

So if it wasn’t the visa issue, or the flag, really the only justification I could find for the Brazilian commenters’ rage was Sarah’s remark that her husband was worried about her traveling to the country due its reputation for violence.

This is of course typical American paranoia of all points foreign. “The natives are savages! We won’t be able to walk the streets in safety!” they whine, in a hideously unfair characterisation of a gentle, welcoming people. No wonder some Brazilians were upset with Sarah, to the point where they posted comments threatening to spit in her face and rape her.

Don’t miss the rest of the hilarity by reading the entire post over at TechCrunch »

UPDATE – 9/1 ~00:30 am Beijing time:  I received a tweet from Keso that showed that he was unblocked.  He wrote:

感谢所有对我的Twitter帐号被挂起表示关心、支持和帮助的朋友，谢谢你们！特别感谢CNReviews的 @elliottng.

Yesterday morning, I saw in Twitter (via @msittig) that famous tech blogger Keso had been blocked–not by the Chinese government–but by Silicon Valley startup company, Twitter.   As one of the most prominent IT bloggers in China, you would think that his suspension would be quickly investigated by Twitter and then reversed.  But as of the time of this post, his account is still suspended, nearly 48 hours later.

Consider this:  Twitter blocks China’s equivalent of Robert Scoble (a popular, pioneering tech blogger).  Forty-eight hours go by and nothing happens.  Do you think that would happen if it were actually Robert Scoble?

I conducted an email interview with Keso to get his thoughts on this matter.   Chinese bloggers are so used to inconvenience and outages, he answered my questions in a calm, cool, and collected way.  (We’re still working on the translation, this is very rough).

1.  When did your account get Suspended by Twitter?

我发现我的Twitter帐号被suspended，是在北京时间8月27日凌晨2点钟左右。在我的帐号被suspend之前几个小时，我刚刚启用了一个第三方应用——Twitter Gadget for Gmail。你知道，Twitter在中国已经被屏蔽将近3个月，中国大陆用户访问Twitter非常困难，他们不得不通过一些第三方应用，以及Tor、VPN等方式，间接访问Twitter。我怀疑——仅仅是怀疑——我的帐号suspended可能跟Twitter Gadget for Gmail有关系。

2.  How many followers did you have?  how many updates?  how long have you been using Twitter?

Until my account was suspended, I had 8000+ followers, 498 tweets. I opened my Twitter account on Jan 30, 2007.

3.  Most people in the US may not have heard of you.  Who are you?  What do you blog about?  How many readers do you have (e.g. monthly visitors/page views, RSS subscribers, etc)?

First and foremost, I am a blogger.  I am also an Internect consultant/advisor with a number of Internet startups.   The number of my blog readers is not able to be measured accuratly,  because many articles are reproduced/reposted onto many different sites, such as Sina News.   In addition, many portals have set up mirror sites of my blog.  As long as I update my blog,  editors from portals will manaully update the “mirrored” blogs on the portals.  According to FeedBurner statistics, my feed subscription number 171,526. But this number does not include the subscription via some sites such as Douban 9 O’clock (9.douban.com) because  they are using another feed which is not able to be measured.

我首先是一名blogger，其次我是一名互联网咨询顾问，为一些互联网startups提供咨询服务。我的blog无法统计具体的读者数量，因为很多文章会被转载到不同的网站，比如新浪新闻，另外，很多门户网站也开设了我的blog镜像，只要我有更新，这些网站的编辑就会人工更新我的镜像blog。根据FeedBurner的统计，我的feed订阅数为171,526。不过这个数字并不包括通过豆瓣九点（9.douban.com）等网站上的订阅，因为这些网站使用的是无法被统计的另一个feed。

4. Your blog content is copied to BBS and also at mirror blogs at the major portals.  Is this done with your permission?  What do you think is the difference between how blog content is reused in China vs. the English-speaking world?

Some of the mirror blogs are set up with my agreement, while others are set up without my permission.  I can only sigh, but can’t do anything about it. A few years ago I wrote an article about this situation : Why not Link other than Repost.  But simply copying blogs without links back is still the most common kind of behavior in China, as each site wants to build its own private garden.  Here, there are a lot of people claim to be “open”, but their “open” may be often false or very limited.   As long as being a closed, private garden can bring greater benefit, these sites will refuse to open up. In China, the big Internet companies, such as Tencent, Sina, Baidu, etc. have generally been building up private gardens.  They are typically bad [at link attribution & being open.]

有些镜像blog是经过我同意的，有些则是他们自己擅自开设的，对此我只能叹气，却无能为力。几年前我曾经写过一篇文章《与其转载，不如链接》（http://blog.donews.com/keso/archive/2005/11/15/627033.aspx）， 不过看上去转载仍然是中国互联网上最常见的一种行为，每个网站都想构建自己的私家花园。在这里，也有很多人说“开放”，但这里的开放，常常是虚假的，或者 非常有限的，只要封闭能够带来更大的利益，他们就会拒绝开放。在中国，那些大的互联网公司，比如腾讯、新浪、百度等，一直都在构建私家花园，他们都是很坏 的典型。

5.  Someone on Twitter (@msittig) read that you were moving over to Sina’s microblogging service.  Is that true?  What is that service?

Sina Micro-Blog is a service similar to Twitter, and is currently in internal testing phase.  Sina has successfully invited China’s celebrity bloggers to set up on their blog platform, and I expect that Sina Micro-Blog will adopt the same operating strategy, focused on the development of the relationship between celebrities and fans. I was invited to try the product by Sina.  As long as my Twitter account restored, I will still use Twitter, because Twitter has become an important channel for me to access more information.

新浪微博是一个类似Twitter的服务，目前还处于内部测试阶段。新浪曾经成功地邀请中国的名人开设blog，我估计新浪微博也会采取相同的运营策略，着重发展名人与fans的关系。我是受新浪邀请试用该产品，谈不上moving。只要我的Twitter帐号恢复，我仍然会用Twitter，因为Twitter已经成为我获取信息的一个重要渠道.

6.  Ironically, you just blogged about Twitter and microblogging before getting suspended. Do you think the microblogging model will be successful in China?  It seems that there have been Twitter clones for year (Zuosa, Fanfou) and none have been that successful.  Does QQ satisfy most people’s need for “microblogging” in some way?  Who else besides Sina might want to launch a microblogging service?