Weekly Review: Here are six interesting blog posts from the past week that will help you be aware, stay grounded, save an economy, better understand the Chinese, have something to talk about with those Chinese, and discover more interesting things.
Electronic Police States: America and UK Lumped With China and North Korea
China and North Korea are first and second respectively (as expected) in a recent report about “electronic police states”, while the and United Kingdom and United States come in fifth and sixth. All four are colored oxygenated red as the “most advanced electronic police states.” Er, so what’s an “electronic police state”, you ask?
The two crucial facts about the information gathered under an electronic police state are these:
1. It is criminal evidence, ready for use in a trial.
2. It is gathered universally and silently, and only later organized for use in prosecutions.
In an Electronic Police State, every surveillance camera recording, every email you send, every Internet site you surf, every post you make, every check you write, every credit card swipe, every cell phone ping… are all criminal evidence, and they are held in searchable databases, for a long, long time. Whoever holds this evidence can make you look very, very bad whenever they care enough to do so. You can be prosecuted whenever they feel like it – the evidence is already in their database.
If you’re curious (or just mortified that your home country could be the same color as China), here’s the original PDF report.
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Helps you realize the possibility that your home country may not be that much better than China.
- Helps you get angry at the thought that your home country could be compared to China.
- Better understand the digitally recorded world we all live in and how it could turn on us.
Chinese Cyber Warfare & American Fear-Mongering…and Death Nerds
The ever-hilarious Will Moss (aka Imagethief) dissects a recent Washington Times article about China’s cyber warfare threats to the United States of America, incisively reducing each its highlights to a smoldering pile of sensationalist fear-mongering stupidity.
I should begin by saying, of course the Chinese government is conducting cyber-espionage against the US. They’d be stupid not to. And of course they are concerned with securing their own critical systems against the United States’ equally inevitable cyber-espionage. Again, they’d be stupid not to. And certainly the US government needs to take information security seriously. And so do businesses. And so does your grandmother. Especially if she’s using Windows. All granted.
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Stops you from being stupid and becoming a victim of sensationalist fear-mongering.
- Stops you from then voting for neo-cons and eroding cherished civil liberties.
- Death nerds. Always. Matter.
How Failure To Bargain In China Leads To The Apocalypse
After summarizing the three main categories of bargainers that foreigners in China fall into (The Innocent, The Hardliners, The Generous), Glen at the Lost Laowai goes on to explain why failure to bargain well in China is “ethically wrong” and serves neither the interests of foreigners nor the Chinese themselves.
Here we have some clearly intelligent and capable individuals, who could be performing meaningful jobs that benefit their community and help along its development, but instead they are telling me where to buy the best souvenirs because it is more profitable. Surely that can’t be right.
In overpaying, and in a big way, we are creating a market for cheap fixes to problems facing the developed word, as opposed to having them find long term solutions.
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Save yourself potentially vast sums of money when shopping.
- Prevent China’s economy from becoming too dependent on foreign ignorance and generosity.
Chinese Netizens Lament How Little Their Lives Are Worth
Source: Brappy.com
Fauna from the ever-pleasant chinaSMACK translates a Chinese netizen’s rant about how China views the value of an individual life. The rant further compares China to other more developed countries when considering the relatively high sums of wrongful death compensation paid by Taiwanese and Korean companies versus the shockingly low sums paid by Shanxi coal mine overlords and China’s state railway department. The netizen asks: Why is there a maximum compensation amount instead of a minimum? And why are the lives of animals worth more than the lives of Chinese people?
The value of a life is supreme/paramount, intrinsically unable to be measured by money, which is also to say, the value of life should not be a highest limit problem. Life is not merchandise, it should not be haggled over, and even less have a highest limit. Instead, there should be the opposite regulation, which is to have only a lowest limit, and even without one, there should not be an upper limit standard. The 400,000 upper limit, actually is us standardizing the value of our own citizens’ lives, treating Chinese people like merchandise, whose lives have a price tag, and what more is a low price! If this is not us insulting (prostituting) ourselves, then what is it?
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Gain a better understanding of why life may be cheap in China.
- Gain a better understanding of Chinese society’s frustrations with, and criticisms of, itself.
That Hangzhou Street Racing Incident
GVO, ESWN, and chinaSMACK all translate various Chinese articles and netizen comments concerning the latest internet outrage over a street-racing rich kid hitting a pedestrian in Hangzhou. China’s infamous human flesh search engines uncover a surprising amount of personal information on both the victim and the racer as the public pressures the police and government to ensure that money does not get in the way of the law this time as it so often does. ESWN, in particular, translates a netizen’s defense of Hu Bin, the driver, arguing that the government should go easy on him because rich people contribute more to the nation.
3. In terms of contribution to the Gross Domestic Product of China as well as Hangzhou, the family of Hu Bin is immeasurably more important than the Tan Family. Wu Bin is the builder, sponsor and economic supporter that Hangzhou needs. Meanwhile Tan has just joined the workforce and his contribution is small — in fact, he is using more resources from than he is contributing to Hangzhou. When we deal with the problem, this should be our first consideration.
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Feeds your fear of crossing Chinese streets filled with Chinese drivers.
- Reminds you to stick to the West Lake area in Hangzhou. Elsewhere is certain death.
- Fear the awesome power of the (cue dramatic music) “human flesh search engines!”
- See Chinese society’s resentment towards the rich who can buy their way out of trouble.
Bonus! A Useful List of Chinese Bridge Bloggers
If you liked our list of eclectic China blogs or China blogs by women, you might love the post on Chinese bridge bloggers who are writing about a variety of topics in English that Adam over at 56minus1 just published.
Bridge blogs are being written for an audience unable to read Chinese, one that’s possibly unfamiliar with Chinese culture, both online and off, with the goal of mutual understanding and information exchange between countries and cultures.
Why This Should Matter To You:
- Because you really don’t want all your info and understanding of China to come from foreigners and expats.
That’s it for this week. Have a link to a blog post that shouldn’t be missed? Be sure to share it with everyone in the comments, and don’t forget to tell us why you recommend it!
China has caught up to and is begin to surpass the U.S and other western democracies in most development indicators: http://www.aneki.com/comparison.php?country_1=China&country_2=United+States
“Because you really don’t want all your info and understanding of China to come from foreigners and expats.”
Oh, I don’t know. Most Chinese citizens could do much, much, worse. Come to think of it, they really do.
Try not to mix with too many expats over the weekend, Kai; they’re clearly not good for your blood pressure.
I have faith that people who read CNR can get their information from multiple sources (both foreigners/expats and locals) and make their own judgments. Please check out Adam’s list for a bunch of Chinese citizens who do much, much, better than you, stuart.
“I have faith that people who read CNR can get their information from multiple sources … and make their own judgments.”
I admire your optimism.
To be fair, this site attracts fewer hard-wired dogmatist commenters than some others. Perhaps they just look on in admiration ;)
Who are you and why do you appear to revel in putting down America and other western nations? You always seem to be on some sort of self-righteous mission to deride “ignorant” westerners and all their pompous misconceptions of China. In doings so, however, you give China two much credit, or at the very least turn a blind eye to serious problems, often chalking them up to be no more than misconstrued western bias.
To categorize American and Britain as “police-states” in the same vain as China is absurd and disingenuous, even if its reserved to the realm of the world wide web.
Put the kool-aid down and try and be a little more subjective.
Who I am can be seen in the author profile below the post. I don’t revel in putting down American and other western nations, I revel in putting down arrogance and conceit that often comes from people of America or other western nations. I think it is fair game to deride “ignorant” westerners with their “pompous misconceptions of China” who likewise deride “ignorant” Chinese, don’t you? I don’t think doing so gives China too much credit, nor does it turn a blind eye to serious problems. What makes you think criticizing ignorant westerners means ignoring China’s very real and serious problems? I can hold two thoughts in my head at once so surely you can too, right?
Western bias is western bias. If you want to argue why any particular thing I’ve argued as being western bias isn’t bias, please do so. Don’t just assume they’re not and blast me for it.
I didn’t categorize America and Britain as “police states”, CryptoHippie.com did. I’m merely reporting about it as several other websites have including Slashdot and BoingBoing. Moreover, they were categorized as “electronic police states” and an explanation was given for such a categorization. Did you read? If you disagree with their categorization, please argue why instead of just calling it “absurd and disingenuous.” But don’t argue before you first read and understand what CryptoHippie is arguing, and the difference between me reporting it as interesting and me suggesting it to be true.
If putting down the kool-aid will make me more subjective, I think I’d rather continue drinking it to remain more objective.
Re Police States (Cyber) -
It’s an interesting map, and Germany – my country – surely deserves the red ink. The way authorities and government agencies here justify their approach is more subtle than those of authoritarian or totalitarian states, but disturbingly efficient.
That said, internet policing is only one aspect of the story. The consequences of it are another. Syria and Egypt, for example, may not have a systematic approach to electronic policing at all (if I can believe the map) – but the number of internet users in those countries is small, anyway, and so is their authorities’ need to provide rainproof evidence in case of criminal prosecution.
Another is that the number of pages blocked in Germany is comparatively small (though we may be champions within the West, not sure about that), and that Egypt or Syria may not block any pages at all (for sure, international satellite television is easily available in Syria). They may not have reached the critical mass of internet users yet.
Concerning blocking pages, China would get a pretty red map, too, and therefore, even easily offended Westerners shouldn’t get worked up by the Cryptohippie map.
However, it should make it clear to us that no government – democratically elected or otherwise – will behave in a constitutional way unless we make sure of that ourselves.
Kai, be careful what you’re linking to. The two links you give in the “Police State” section both got their graph from “cryptohippie.” This site has no validity. Even “boingboing” says that they “don’t know anything about this person/group.”
The “cryptohippie” site is selling a product. Look at the webpage and see. How will they sell their “anonymous internet access”? They’ll play off of fears and convince their target-base (Americans and Britains) that their internet is comparable to China’s and North Korea’s (OH NO!!!).
Now you’ve just repackaged two blogs’ bad entries that came from a small company’s website.
I’ve enjoyed reading some of your articles and comments on other sites, but I’m not sure how much longer I’ll follow this blog. It seems this blog is filling in article quantity with some frustrated rants rather than solid articles. And I understand how frustrating it is when you are trying to combat ignorance about China and then receive more ignorant comments about your blog.
Keeping a good reputation among your open-minded and intelligent readers is an effective way for eliminating misunderstandings about China. They’ll read through everything, and you can’t please everyone, but the tiniest things on your website can leave huge impacts.
anotherteacher, I know what Cryptohippie.com is doing. I’m still just sharing and linking to it as an interesting thing I read for others to see themselves. You suggesting that their report is used to sell a product is fine, but I think the notion of electronic police states, where your digital information is gathered in the background and available for use later, is still an interesting topic for discussion.
I also fully understand the sensationalist nature of lumping the United States/Britain with China/North Korea. I used that to draw attention, but I thought my awareness of it was implicit in what I wrote:
I thought my points above (plus “oxygenated red”) expressed a certain bemused tone of voice, but I totally understand if my writing wasn’t clear enough as to what these above links are about. If I was unclear, I apologize. I do thank you for your compliments and I do welcome you to tell me what you consider to be frustrated rants (instead of poking fun at easy targets) on CNR. However, just as you said, I can’t please everyone and I don’t think I actually ever present myself as trying to (you know, what with my proclivity to lay into some people). Again, thanks for your comment.
I understand. And also, I do admire the undertaking of this blog. Danwei and chinasmack and others have it much easier. Danwei posts links, summarizes newspapers, conducts interviews, and posts the occasional editorial. Chinasmack translates. Your blog is creating new content for discussion or offering opinions. Maintaining many high quality articles of this type is very difficult for a small team.
The “100 RMB/day” and the “Expats don’t need to make Chinese friends” articles seem unnecessary for this site. They are decent articles with good points, but you have to think of who is reading your site. Lots of expats in China are pathetic, and it’d be nice for them to read this simple mind candy before going on a rant about China, but they’re not the ones reading this blog. Sure some will end up here, but you have to ignore them.
You’ve responded to people with things along the line of “You’re preaching to the wrong person.” I’m going to bet a lot of this site’s intelligent readers feel the same way. Any respected publication writes for readers it respects. I hope you can keep this in mind in future articles. And also, thanks for your blog.
Well, we’re doing a lot of different things, including summaries, links, interviews, etc. It’s just that I come across as the “editorial/opinion” guy. :)
I personally don’t think the “100 RMB/day” and “expats don’t need to make Chinese friends” articles are unnecessary, but I understand each person will judge their own way. To me, I felt both posts address certain aspects about Life in China I found interesting (of course, what I find interesting may be anything but for others).
This is interesting. I’d really like to know who you think reads CNR. Elliott and I certainly have a target audience in mind that we’re hoping to attract and build, but it’d be great to know who we already have. I generally assume it to be random search traffic (Elliott and Min did a good job with past SEO) or people who kinda know us from something or another, keeping tabs to see if we do something interesting.
So it seems you feel the readers of CNR are intelligent readers. I think many definitely are. I also understand what you mean suggesting that I’m preaching to them what they already know and hence these topics are unnecessary. To that I have to say that maybe CNR isn’t actually being positioned to appeal to intelligent readers beyond reaffirming what they know. It sounds like you want CNR to be positioned to challenge intelligent readers so they can go further. CNR isn’t out to do that. Elliott had a silly analogy about video game levels. I think we’re trying to put CNR at the Level 1-Level 7 China hands, for those people who are wading in, and for those people who have an intermediate level of understanding and growing interest in China. We’re not here for the experts. I see Danwei’s cultural pieces or book reviews to be more geared towards that. I see a lot of other really good blogs serving the wizened expats. We’re not after that and one reason is because we’re personally more interested in how people become interested in China, and how we can shape their growing understanding of China.
I see things like the disparity in purchasing power between expats and locals or the wide-spread issue of expat-local interaction to be things that are relevant to new and intermediate expats. That’s why I write about them. I’d hope that more seasoned or intelligent readers won’t see my posts as preaching to them, but as opportunities for them to weigh in their own experience and affirm (or debate) the points not for themselves but for the benefit of those less experienced (or intelligent) than them.
And hey, thanks for sharing your thoughts and feedback.
Hmmm… When I see this blog, I see it targeting a similar audience to chinasmack. It’s young, colorful, and interesting. So yeah, in my comments above, I’m arguing this blog to be something that might not be its goal.
Something I like about blogs is that they comment on culture in ways the mainstream media ignores. I’m one of those people who knew little about China before coming here. When I arrived, I read the China Daily and every big Western publication, but none were adequately describing what I was seeing. Then I found the English blog scene. Most blogs were great for showing new things. This blog does that well, and I fit the description of someone with a growing interest in China. However, having little knowledge about China is different than being intelligent.
I don’t know where the viewers of this site come from, but I would guess that a lot of the returning viewers are people looking for more opinions about China. And someone who is looking for more variety probably has a respectable level of thinking. So basically, keep the great posts coming, but write in a way that can’t be interpreted as insulting to the readers (and ignore the overly sensitive people who always feel insulted).
anotherteacher,
I really appreciate the feedback that you’ve provided on this thread. I’ve learned a lot just reading your thoughts and suggestions and thinking through the responses.
First, its fair game to call into question the motives of cryptohippie. However, I want to refer you to Rebecca MacKinnon’s emerging work on what she is currently calling “Cybertarianism” which is the emergence of censorship and opinion shaping with Chinese characteristics, but increasingly found across the world. Her thesis is that government oversight and influence (a softer phrasing than “electronic surveillance”) is finding its way into Western democracies and other societies and fears a convergence of government practices that could restrict freedom of speech and press worldwide. Rebecca’s credentials are impeccable and she is uniquely qualified to tell this story. I think it relates to the substance of this post and the cryptohippie claims (as sensationalistic and self serving as they might be).
Here is Rebecca MacKinnon’s post on Cybertarianism
Thanks again for all your great comments!