China's Internet Police Arrest Netizens For Spreading 'Rumours'

"Democracy means that an early morning knock on the door is the milkman", wrote once Winston Churchill. In China, however, a knock on the door may be a slightly more exciting event.

The online newspaper China Economy (中国经济网) in a recent article reported on the PRC's so-called Internet Police (网络警察) and its job to 'patrol the net'. One of the main responsibilities of the Internet Police is to stop the spreading of 'unfounded rumours'. 

"Internet rumours," explains the article, "are the propagation of unfounded news via mediums such as chat rooms, social networks, forums etc. Internet rumours spread suddenly and fast, so that they can have an extremely negative impact on social order. Most especially, when an important event happens, such rumours can cause panic and jeopardise social stability."

Citing the Legal Daily (法制日报), a newspaper issued by the PRC Ministry of Justice, China Economy gives an example of how the Internet Police cracks down on internet rumours. 

On April 20 of this year a powerful earthquake struck Sichuan Province. On the 22nd a netizen claimed that in the city of Ya'an 6000 people had lost their lives. At around 8:30 an Internet Police unit of the Public Security Bureau (公安局网络警察) of Changshu City who were patrolling the internet, discovered this message on a forum group of the famous Chinese social network QQ. It had been written by a user by the name of "Taiwan Air Force" (台湾空军). 

"When we discover that someone has spread rumours online," said a policeman named Xue Jing (薛景), "we first have to find the offender, understand the circumstances and then verify the facts."

On the 23rd the Internet Police summoned and arrested the suspect, a man named Lu. Mr. Lu admitted to having spread false information about the number of victims of the earthquake. He justified his action by saying that he was just curious and wanted to attract other people's attention, so he forwarded the information he had found online without thinking too much about it. 

"In view of Mr. Lu's positive attitude," says the paper, "of the fact that he admitted his mistake and promptly clarified his improper remarks, he corrected the negative influence of his words, and there won't be serious repercussions, but only a disciplinary punishment."

According to Internet policeman Xue Jing, internet rumours can have a negative impact on the government's credibility. If a person claims that 6000 people died, how can common people be certain of the true figures? They will inevitably have doubts. It is clear that this will be detrimental for the work of government departments, he stated.

The argument put forth by the paper is that rumours are not simply harmless misinformation, but a threat to social stability and order, and that it is necessary to patrol the internet 24-hours a day in order to prevent rumours from spreading. 

It is obvious that controlling information is considered a priority by the government. But, as it often happens, the line between what could even be considered legitimate intrusion of the authorities in private citizens' lives and repression is blurred and contradictory. 

First of all, the assumption that rumours can harm social order has to be proved, and I think that it cannot be proved. Mistrust of the institutions is hardly any socially disruptive phenomenon, but rather a legitimate act of intellectual freedom on the part of the citizens. 

Second, the control of information can easily be abused in order to prevent news from spreading which the government deems dangerous. For instance, during the Jasmine Revolution in Egypt, some people who sent pictures of the events to friends also received a visit from the Internet Police. 

Read the full article from China Economy

Taiwan Not Overly Dependent on Trade with mainland China, Says Taiwan's Ministry

Responding to an article entitled "Taiwan, an Island Adrift," by professor of East Asian politics William E. Sharp Jr., the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Taiwan denies that Taiwan is becoming too dependent on trade with mainland China. 

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs must take issue with a recent Asian Wall Street Journalop-ed entitled "Taiwan, an Island Adrift," by William E. Sharp Jr., a professor of East Asian politics at Hawaii Pacific University, in which he argued that Taiwan's economy has become overly dependent on mainland China.

Read full article on The Wall Street Journal

Buy on Amazon: Feng Menglong: The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers 賣油郎獨占花魁 (English and Chinese Edition) (Classics of Chinese Literature)

US Not Containing, but 'Counterbalancing' China

Words are often used as weapons, and semantics employed to represent the reality in an ideologically charged way. It is not surprising that nowadays the US is struggling to find the right words to describe its relationship with China, words that allow to depict the US as a good and benign power, and China as a danger, while at the same time denying the very fact that America sees China as a threat. 

The following example is one of the most interesting. Robert Manning wrote an article on East Asian Forum, arguing that the US is not containing China; it is 'counterbalancing' China. What is the difference between the two terms?

According to Manning, "containment was an effort to isolate Moscow economically; undermine its ideology; and contain its military power with a robust US nuclear arsenal, alliances such as NATO to its West and Japan to its East, and an integrated global trade and financial system. Containment meant minimal social or economic interaction with Russians."

'Counterbalancing', on the other hand, means "mobilising resources and partners to offset a perceived challenge to the existing strategic balance. The danger is that this can create a dynamic known as a ‘security dilemma’ in international relations theory. One state increasing its military strength because it feels vulnerable may produce an unintended reaction in another state which feels threatened, leading to a spiral of increased tensions and conflict."

The two terms indeed describe a very different pattern. Counterbalancing refers to the perceived emergence of a new power that challenges the prominence of a new one. Counterbalancing is, in some respects, more subtle, and even more dangerous than containment. While containment is based on a declared rivalry, counterbalancing is more ambiguous; it is a strategy that derives from the desire of a hegemonic power to prevent another country from reaching the same level of economic, military and political strength on the world stage. Yet this attitude is deeply unjust. 

World hegemony is based on hierarchy. Some countries count less than others. The US has created a hierarchical post-war order with itself at the top. While on paper the US was promoting peace and equality among nations, it concentrated power in its own hands because it believed in its own moral superiority, it believed that only the US could use its power wisely. Many Americans seem to be unaware of this self-contradiction.  In some ways the rivalry between the US and China resembles that between Great Britain and Germany before World War I. Great Britain was the biggest colonial power, but it denied Germany the right to become a colonial power. The Germans perceived this attitude as unfair - as long as no one has colonies, all can be equal, but if one has more colonies and power than anyone else, there can be no equality.

Read Robert Manning's full article here



Buy on Amazon:

Robert A. Manning: Envisioning 2030: US Strategy for a Post-Western World

Feng Menglong: The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers 賣油郎獨占花魁 (English and Chinese Edition) (Classics of Chinese Literature)

Filial Piety: Children Are Required to Visit Parents By Law

Filial piety is an often misunderstood concept. Westerners tend to see it as a stronger version of their biblical precept "honour thy father and mother". But filial piety in Imperial China was a very different principle. In the West the authority of parents was always a relative value, a fluid one that co-existed with other values. But in Imperial China, it meant complete subjection of children to parents.

Chinese society was based on a strict hierarchy in which parents were superior to children, men to women, elder to younger. Children were often seen by parents as their old age insurance. They had to serve and help them, obey and respect them. An interesting example of this are "The 24 Paragons of Filial Piety", a classic of Confucianism. The 24 stories show the hierarchical concept of filial subordination to parents; in one story, for instance, a father decides to kill his own daughter in order to give more food to his ill mother.

Confucian hierarchy was a clever and successful tool of government and social stability. As the Emperor was the undisputed ruler in the country, so the father was the undisputed ruler in his own house. His children were his subjects, who had to obey him until his death and revere him after death. T

The echo of centuries of Confucian hierarchy can still be seen in the legislation of the People's Republic of China, in which Confucianism as an ideological instrument of government has been rediscovered after the era of Maoist anti-traditionalism.

CONFUCIUS said that while a man’s parents were alive, he should not travel far afield. Recent economic opportunities have been straining such norms as much as iconoclastic Maoism ever did. So the Communist Party, now more interested in social harmony than revolution, is weighing in. On July 1st it introduced a law to require children to visit or keep in touch with their elderly parents. On the same day, a court in the eastern city of Wuxi ruled in the case of a 77-year-old mother who had sued her daughter for not visiting her and for failing to help her financially. The court ordered the daughter to do both, or face fines or even detention.

Read full article on The Economist

Buy on Amazon:

Runaway Best Seller

The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers 賣油郎獨占花魁 (English and Chinese Edition) (Classics of Chinese Literature)

US Lobbyism Against China's State Capitalism - Two World Powers with Inverse Problems

For too long the Washington Consensus overshadowed and concealed the complexities of capitalism. The myth of the free market, a market that regulates itself and creates harmony and wealth for those who are willing to work hard for success, was repeated over and over again by mainstream economics and politicians after the end of the Cold War.

That this simple tale of an 'invisible hand' that harmonises human society through market forces is nothing more than a theoretical construction, was shown by the financial crisis and all the contradictions it brought to light. The case of China is in this respect a good example of how an economy can thrive if it is supported by state intervention. The world's second largest economy is not a country based on free market, but on a mix of market and state control.

Yet in both the US and China, state and market are interrelated in a way that poses many a threat to their present and future. In the following piece, Ian Bremmer analyses the many unsolved problems the two giants face, and how state and economy are entangled, but in very different, if not opposed ways. 

As protests sweep the developing world and Europe struggles through an austerity hangover, China and the U.S., relative to their peers, look like the best in class. They are both comfortable with their modest growth rates (compared to their norms of the past decade), and insulated from the kind of social unrest we are seeing in Egypt, Turkey or Brazil. But both countries have a deeper intractable challenge that will, in the longer-term, get worse. What’s interesting is that they’re the inverse of each other: in the U.S., wealth and private sector interests capture the political system. In China, politicians capture the private sector and the wealth that comes with it.

Read the full article by Ian Bremmer on Reuters 

Buy on Amazon:

Runaway Best Seller

The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers 賣油郎獨占花魁 (English and Chinese Edition) (Classics of Chinese Literature)

The Chinese Production Party (CPP, 中華生產黨) Seeks Alliance with KMT

Mainland Chinese spouses living in the Republic of China (Taiwan) have recently formed their own party, called Chinese Production Party (CPP, 中華生產黨) to promote their own rights on the island. In order to strengthen their position, they are now seeking a strategic alliance with the Guomindang.

As an article on the Taipei Times reports, "If the KMT agrees to the CPP’s proposal that the former establish a 'New Immigrant Committee' and include the 'outstanding representatives' of Chinese spouses living in Taiwan in its list of legislator-at-large nominations for the next legislative election, the CPP will throw its full support behind the KMT in the 2016 presidential and legislative elections."

Read the full article on the Taipei Times

Buy on Amazon: The Oil Vendor and the Queen of Flowers (English and Chinese Edition) (Classics of Chinese Literature)

Types of Chinese Visas

"Foreigners coming to China for travel, study or employment are required to obtain a Chinese visa for the duration of their intended stay. There are several different types of visas that one can apply for. Here's a short breakdown of each of the main visas that may assist you during your application process. These have been updated to reflect changes occurred within the immigration reform of July 1, 2013."

Read full article on The BJ Reviewer

Family In Chinese Culture - Hierarchy, Harmony, Communication

The Role of the Family in Chinese Culture

Scene from the Song Dynasty Illustrations
of the Classic of Filial Piety (detail),
depicting a son kneeling before his parents.
(source)

It is fundamental for Western people to understand the importance that family has in Chinese society. The family was for centuries the pillar of the Chinese state, and we can still observe its centrality in shaping the economic, social and  moral horizon of the Chinese people. However, we should be very careful not to interpret or judge Chinese society assuming that language can be a guidance. Instead, language is more likely to confuse us.

Communication is a process that requires a positioning of the parties involved, both toward each other and toward the cultural narratives that implicitly and unconsciously influence their thinking (see Yin / Hall 2002, p. 199). Only to mention one example: the word 'marriage' can be understood by different speakers in different ways, depending on their own cultural background and personal opinions, which are often not openly explained in conversation. The simple word 'marriage' does not reveal what the speakers associate with the idea of marriage. 

A Westerner, for instance, may think of marriage in terms of a relationship between two individuals; a Chinese, on the contrary, may see it as a matter between two families. In this case, if a Westerner and a Chinese talk about marriage, the notions that are hidden behind the simple words marriage will not come to the surface unless the participants decide to discuss it openly.

In order to understand the impact of the family in Chinese thinking, we must first of all comprehend that in old China, the family was the nucleus of the society. Traditional Chinese society is best understood by referring to the triad ruler-father-husband. This triad represented the formal order of Chinese society. Its opposite was luan, chaos or disorder. For society to function properly, the three relationships (husband-wife, father-son, ruler-subject) had to be strictly hierarchic. These relationships were unequal, that is, the superior demanded obedience from the inferior, while the superior was supposed to exercise his power benignly. (see Swartz 2002, pp. 120-124).

Read the full article on my-new-life-in-asia.blogspot

Filial Piety in Chinese Culture and the Myth of Collectivism (Part II) - Concubinage, Mistresses, Wives

As I explained in my previous post, we should be very careful when we discuss the topic of harmony in Chinese and other East Asian cultures. Harmony is often mistaken for altruism or a moral respect for others. In reality, as I hope to have shown in the last article, this assumption is highly questionable. What the defenders of Asian values call harmony is, in fact, something else: it is hierarchy and stability.

Traditionally, throughout Chinese history the family was the nucleus of the society, a self-regulating social unit that guaranteed the stability and order the Chinese so greatly valued. It is thus not surprising that advocates of Asian values see in the family one of the major strengths of their culture and society; however, they selectively choose those aspects of the institution of marriage that appear to them ideologically acceptable in order to both maintain certain power structures and find a compromise between their own cultural tradition and Western-shaped modernity.

Read the full article on my-new-life-in-asia.blogspot

Filial Piety in Chinese Culture and the Myth of Collectivism (Part I)

It has often been argued that "Asians tend to value the community and Westerners value the individual"; that "Asians appreciate order and harmony, Westerners appreciate personal freedom" (note). One of the most influential advocates of this culturalist view on society is former Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew. For those who don't know him, Lee Kuan Yew is considered a giant in Asian and world politics. He led the city-state of Singapore, an ex British colony, from "third to first world", with a per capita income now surpassing that of its former colonial master.

Mr Lee and all those who support the idea that the West is individualistic while Asia is collectivist, argue that Asian cultures, shaped by a thousand-year-long Confucian tradition, value the group over the individual, stress duties over rights, emphasize harmony and compromise rather than confrontation and self-assertion. Therefore, individuals don't behave like isolated beings, but harmonize their interests with those of the communities in which they are embedded, be it family, clan or nation (Brems 2011, pp. 41-42).

Read the full article on my-new-life-in-asia.blogspot