Party and State: People's Daily

Showing posts with label People's Daily. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Chinese Declare Internet Victory

If you've every wondered what your dad would sound like if he was put in charge of cleaning all the porn off the Interwebs then take a look at what Ren Xianliang had to say when his office issued forth a proclamation that the Internet is now like Disneyland, with barely a bad word to say about the CCP.

A study by an Internet opinion monitoring service under the party-owned People's Daily newspaper showed the number of posts by a sample of 100 opinion leaders declined by nearly 25 percent and were overtaken by posts from government microblog accounts.

Using his Jedi powers, Zhu Huaxin, general secretary of an Internet opinion monitoring service (such a thing does exist, apparently) weighed in, assuring us that positive energy (The Party) has regained control of the Intertubes, defeating negative powers (everyone else on planet Earth).

"The positive force on the Internet has preliminarily taken back the microphone, and the positive energy has overwhelmed the negative energy to uphold the online justice,"

The impressive statistics mean nothing, as was pointed out by a number of overseas analysts. The mere fact that people aren't stupid enough to go public with their dissenting views means that they're being unpatriotic on more secure platforms, being driven underground and ultimately radicalised. But then, the politicians in Beijing have already thought of that, right...?

China claims victory in scrubbing Internet clean

CCTV Producer Says He Was Dismissed for Questioning Coverage

Sunday, October 6, 2013

China Kid's Cultural "Malnutrition": Movies to Blame

There are times when you wonder if Chinese people know that they actually live in China. Take, for example, Zhao Baohua's piece in the People's Daily, where he bemoaned the fact that there aren't enough movies for Chinese kids these days. According to her, the lack of homegrown child-friendly films means that the next generation (some 300 million of them) won't have much in the way of a cultural identity, and that the reliance on American imports will lead to cultural "malnutrition".

Addressing the problems, Zhao says Chinese kids' films should be more creative in cultivating upright values in their target audience and get away from being too shallow and childish in their spiritual essence.

It's easy to blame media for the lack of cultural values in China, mostly because it seems to spend much more time raising Chinese kids that their parents do. The naive implication that Chinese movies get produced in the same way that American movies demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the grip that SARFT has over media production in China - especially astonishing considering that the author of the op-ed is a movie critic.

Boahua seems to have completely ignored the uncomfortable truth that SARFT, when it wants to, is quite capable of taking control of what movies get screened where, so the idea that part of the blame lies with the owners of movie theatres just doesn't hold water. Chinese people just don't like Chinese movies the way they are made now. Statistics from the last foreign movie blackout show that audience attendance went down 9% in the first month - over two months, SARFT's shortsighted attempt to boost Chinese movie revenue actually resulted in a loss of nearly $200 million.

What is partly to blame is the lack of any kind of decent parenting in China, and a government that focuses way too much on finding ways of controlling the hearts and minds of it's people, rather than getting on with the job that it's tasked with.

"Chinese Animation Getting Better" - So Says Chinese State Editorial

Chinese movie recorded officially in Hausa set for airing [Premium Times]

Chinese movie recorded officially in Hausa set for airing

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

High End Tea Sales Slump, Crab Sales Up

After the luxury baijiu market saw sale suffering over the new anti-corruption drive that has left officials stumped as to what to buy for gifts in the upcoming holidays, the tea market is looking pretty grim too.

According to a report on the People's Daily, vendors in the Maliandao tea market have seen sales almost grind to a halt with official orders banning extravagant presents for officials.

"We used to work overtime every day to weigh, pack and deliver tea before the festival, but this year, the business has never been worse," said Ye Zhen, a shop owner who sells Fujian tea, adding that high-end tea is hardly being sold at all.

But all is not lost, those canny enough to sell cheaper, more acceptable mooncakes, baijiu or tins of tea have been raking it in. Boxes of mooncakes going for 100rmb a pop have been flying off the shelves in eastern Anhui, and the falling price of crabs has meant that ordinary people can now afford what was once a luxury foodstuff.

As crab and lobster make their way onto the tables of the ordinary working folk, officials still eager or stupid enough to cement a business relationship with a CCP mandarin. Ordering via the Internet has meant that warehouses across the country are doing a brisk trade, and courier companies ferrying the 1000rmb bottle of baijius make a small fortune.

"Some people place orders on the Internet and leave the addresses of their 'friends'. So, no one would know what's in the packages or how much they are worth," said a tea shop owner, who declined to be named.

So much for going after tigers and flies. The year long corruption crackdown is only in it's infancy, but the limiting damage to the economy and cleaning up government is not going to be as easy as Xi Jin Ping might think.

How the humble mooncake became the unlikely target of Beijing's corruption clampdown

Beijing's anti-graft campaign targets mooncakes

Anti-corruption drive hits Moutai hard - Shaun Rein

Mooncakes hide in baskets in defiance of Beijing's luxury ban

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Chinese Reporter Defends His Democratic Rights. In Canada.

Getting his knickers in a twist because everyone else was able to ask five questions, and the poor Chinese delegation only got to ask four, a Chinese reporter took matters into his own hands, grabbing a microphone from a staff member, prompting security to haul him away from the press conference and briefly detaining him.

Speaking after the incident, Li Xue Jiang, Canadian bureau chief for the Chinese People's Daily said that

"The Prime Minister's Office shouldn't deprive my right. It's not democratic," without any irony whatsoever, adding that he wouldn't apologize, and that the Prime Minister should apologize to him saying "Why should I apologize? They should apologize to me for being unfair and depriving me of my right to ask a question."

The Prime Ministers office took a different view of the incident. Commenting on Twitter, prime minister's director of communications Andrew MacDougall wrote "Agree or disagree with how events are run, there was no excuse for the Chinese state reporter to get physical with our staff. We will be raising the matter with the [parliamentary] press gallery and Mr. Li should apologize immediately."

Arctic tour: Chinese journalist denied chance to ask Stephen Harper a question

PM's tour ends with tussle with Chinese reporter

Harper's tour ends with tussle

Harper staffer gets into scuffle with Chinese journalist

Stephen Harper's northern tour ends with tussle involving Chinese reporter

Harper staffer gets into scuffle with Chinese journalist

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Extravagant Government Galas Banned

More bad news for government officials - the Politburo has banned the once popular government galas in their latest move to show how connected to the people they are.

"Evening galas, especially those funded with state finances, easily encourage unhealthy practices and harm the image of the party and the government, and there are many public complaints about this," says the circular.

Editorials across the country predictably echoed their approval, The People's Daily noting that

"Our country still has 128 million people living below the poverty line, and per capita GDP is still behind in world rankings. With slowing fiscal revenue growth and rising demand for livelihood improvement, governments at all levels should firmly establish a mentality of living frugally and use limited funds where they are needed most by the masses,"

TV stations who produce overly sensational pieces should be "exposed by the media", as should pesky celebs who book only to cancel at the last minute, or any stars who demand wages deemed to be too high. "Severe punishments" await those who dare to transgress...