Chinese Answers

On the outside, China's answer to Silicon Valley doesn't look the part: It's a crowded mass of electronics malls, fast-food joints and office buildings in northwest Beijing, bisected by congested highways.

Inside China's Version of Silicon Valley, Wall Street Journal, Dec 4, 2013.

Large parts of eastern China, including its prosperous and cosmopolitan commercial capital Shanghai, have been covered in smog over the past week or so. The provincial government has cancelled flights, closed schools and forced cars off the road – and also warned children and the elderly to stay indoors. A cold front arriving yesterday saw the pollution start to clear.

Users of Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, also vented their outrage over the CCTV and Global Times’ comments.

Positive Spin on China's Smog Crisis Baackfires, The Scotsman, 11 Dec, 2013

Over 86,000 micro-credit practitioners, China's answer to Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi banker credited with pioneering the concept of micro-finance, have been going door to door to visit small business owners and farmers to offer them financial advice and services.

Rags to Riches Tales Expected from Micro Financing Growth, Xinhua Insight, 14 Dec, 2013

China Telecom’s subsidiary Jiangsu Telecom, in Jiangsu province on the east coast of the country, posted the offer on its website. Translated details were scarce, but it appears customers have the chance to use bitcoin instead of yuan to pre-order Samsung’s 2014 clamshell form-factor Android phone.

Payments are processed through BitBill, China’s answer to BitPay.

China's Third Largest Mobile Network Now Accepts Bitcoin, Coindesk.com Nov 29, 2013.

58.com, China’s answer to Craigslist, surged nearly 42 per cent to $24.12 in its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday, in a sign that sentiment towards US-listed Chinese companies could be turning after two years of accounting scandals and critical reports from short-sellers.

China's Answer to Craiglist Surges on US Debut, FT.com, Nov 1st, 2013

 

ProPublica's Weibo Censored Image Archive

Weibo, and the army of censors that police the platform is proving to be a valuable tool when it comes to penetrating the veil of secrecy that the state censorship machine operates behind.  For the last couple of years, institutions have been poking the Great Firewall with a stick to find out what makes it tick, and China has managed to create a market in exporting it's web monitoring tech.

Since May, ProPublica has been collecting and archiving the images that have irked the powers that be, prompting them to be purged from the Chinese Internet.  The interactive feature that they've put together allows you view the images by category and gives background on the whys and wherefores of the censorship.

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Mainlanders are Locusts Even At Home

When a group of well meaning Hong Kongers took exception to the behaivour of certain mainland Chinese people acting like mainland Chinese people (i.e., doing whatever the hell they liked despite numerous public signs saying "don't do whatever the hell you like") they took out an ad in a newspaper that branded Mainlanders "locusts".

Whoever runs the official Beijing Subway Weibo account got pretty miffed at people leaving sunflower seed husks and endless flyers for real estate agents lying around the carriages, posting a particularly nasty message:

Beijing Subway V: #Civilization hand in hand with you# [Subway civilization discussion]  The Line 10 is scattered about in mess after “locusts” have left. The capital city of Beijing is well praised for its tolerance, but sometimes is also criticized for its over-tolerance. For those that intentionally destroy Capital Beijing with bad behaviors, what we can say is only that You are not welcome!

The ever touchy Chinese netizens descended on the tweet like....er....um....in their hundreds, taking exception to the word "locusts".

脱线的胖子：You are disqualified to choose the object of service as a public service provider.

Humpy：Locust, although used in a pair of quotation mark, is still an extreme insult to compatriots. You can not conduct personal attack at the passengers even if they behave badly. We ask Beijing subway authority to apologize to the public and punish those responsible.

张修茂：Beijing Subway is wrong if they refer locusts to strangers and migrants, but uncivilized behaviors should be condemned.

带上柳岩去日本：Is there any trash bin in the carriages?

 

As the writers of the original report at HugChina pointed out, there'll probably be nothing like the outrage that erupted after Jimmy Kimmel's "kill all the Chinese" skit.

China Debates Terror Attacks Online

"Dog fuckers", a little known term of affection (we presume) for government officials, is how one Weibo user described the intended targets of yesterday's bomb in Taiyuan.

With public confidence in government officials not especially high these days. Xi's crackdown on graft is continuing, and a steady stream of videos and photos continue to emerge online of civil servants caught in compromising situations with women who aren't their wives, reactions to the bombings have been a little different to what you might expect.

David Wertime's analysis of the "lone wolf" attacks on Foreign Policy, shows there seems to be some debate in the Chinese webspace of whether exactly violent protest against the government is acceptable or not.  Always a good sign the everyone's happy exactly the way things are.

 

 

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China Crackdown Comes Under UN Review

For the time being, outcry over the jail terms and fines imposed by Chinese officials of those who are found guilty of spreading rumors online has largely been confined to tree-hugging hippy types like those found in organizations like, er, Amnesty International.

Reuters is reporting that for the first time, the tighter measures that obviously limit freedom of speech (unless you're from North Korea, in which case, it's the opposite) will be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council.  In case you're wondering how China even got through the door without diplomats falling about laughing in the aisles, China isn't actually a member of the UN, but is planning to launch a PR offensive for membership.  Presumably the presentation defending the actions of it's Big V Crackdown that it plans to give in Geneva is a pre-game warm-up.

The Foreign Ministry has said that it will listen to constructive criticisms, saying that it will give them "serious consideration".  Much in the same way that it thoughtfully mulled over what punishment people who call Xi Jin Ping a stinky stoopid boogerhead on Weibo should receive (a 107 year suspended death sentence, in case you're wondering.  Be careful who you call a boogerhead on Weibo).

Adding wiggle room to it's statement, the ministry added ""As for malicious, deliberate criticisms, of course we will uphold our own path and our own correct judgments.".  So as long as the criticisms are accidental, it's all right then.

Liu Hu: Investigative Journalist Arrested

An investigative journalist who accused senior party members of corruption has been formally charged on suspicion of "fabricating and spreading rumors".

Accusing deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce Ma Shengqi of negligence on his Weibo account, Liu shared a mass of information that accused higher level party cadres of corruption.  The posts were subsequently deleted following Liu's arrest.  Earlier this year, the journalist's lawyer had said that because the usual catch-all accusations ("subverting state power", et al) don't apply to messages posted online, it was unlikely that his client would be charged with "disrupting the social order".  Thanks to the tireless work of Xi Jin PIng and his anti-rumor mongering lawmakers, that's pretty much what happened, and Liu was promptly charged with spreading unverified rumors online.

Once again undermining the anti-graft campaign that Xi has made his mission this year, no-one's really sure what's going on when it comes to, well, the fight against corruption.  Self regulation within the Party certainly hasn't worked very so far, and Chinese whistle blowers are having the frighteners put on them for taking the initiative and posting messages of suspected graft online.  The fact that now journalists are considered fair game will pretty much hobble the Chinese press even further, leaving the CCP with little in the way of oversight other than it's own Disciplinary Committee - an organization that has already caused at least two deaths investigating officials.

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Charles Xue: Arrested for Prostitution, Confesses to Spreading Rumors Online

Charles Xue, the venture capitalist arrested earlier this month for prostitution, has appeared on Chinese TV confessing to the heinous crime of spreading rumors online.  While it hasn't been made especially clear why he's confessed to something that he never was arrested for, the state broadcaster is typically making an example of the unfortunate Xue, who is also known as Xue Manzi.

Commanding an online following of nearly 12 million on Weibo, Xue said that "My irresponsibility in spreading information online was a vent of negative mood, and was a neglect of the social mainstream," adding that "freedom of speech cannot override the law.".  Of course, when freedom of speech is technically written into the law, as it is in the Chinese constitution, it's become increasingly clear as the Big V crackdown continues unabated that there's no such thing in practice.

Under new legislation, if a rumor, say something like "Xi Jin Ping smokes the big one" gets viewed 5000 times, or reposted 500 times a potential maximum sentence of three years in jail can be bestowed upon the guilty party.  There's no word yet on what the punishment would be for anything, with, say 499 retweets, or 4999 visits.

Confessions made by arrested perps are a useful tool in reinforcing the idea that the Chinese police know what the hell they're doing.  The recent parading on TV of detained foreign businessmen confessing to what Chinese businessmen get away with before they've had their coffee in the morning is a relatively new development.  Along with the new laws regarding online behavior, legal experts have said that the confessions broadcast live to the nation make a mockery of the already pisspoor Chinese legal system.

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Pan Shiyi Very Very Nervously Backs Beijing's Big V Crackdown.

The high profile arrests of Charles Xue, Wang Gongquan and Dong Shiru seem to be having the desired effect on promient "Big V" microbloggers in the Chinese blogosphere.

After lobbying the government to release more accurate data about the terrible air quality in the capital, real estate tycoon Pan Shiyi is getting a bit nervous that he might be next.  What better course of action than to publicly back the crackdown?  Going on the PR offense, an TV spot was duely booked.  Interviewed on CCTV about the new rules, whereby a sentence of three years in the clink can be handed down to anyone who posts a rumour that is reposted 5000 times, Pan seemed to suddenly have developed a stutter. 

Not usually camera shy, as this promo video for Johnnie Walker shows, Pan seemed a little unsure of how to answer the reporters questions - the pressure of a firing squad loading their guns off camera possibly contributing.  Mocking messages were posted on the very platform that he spoke out about, but a couple of messages of sympathy were left for him - it's difficult to remain composed if you're being interviewed by a police officer on camera.

That Was the iPhone Event that Wasn't

Reactions to the new iPhone have been lukewarm at best.  In America, it was a bit ho-hum, and Chinese netizens wanted to tear Tim Cook a new asshole when they found out how much the phone would cost.  The new handset, hyped up beyond recognition as the "cheap one" that would go up against Xiaomi's 1999rmb smartphone is only marginally cheaper than previous versions, attracting a large number of negative comments on microblogs across China.

"I thought the cheap 5C version would be priced at one thousand or two (yuan)... I can't sell my kidney for this much," said one poster on Sina Weibo, China's hugely popular Twitter equivalent, referring to a teenager who sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad last year.

"So this is the so-called cheap version? The 5C starts at 4,488 yuan in China. Haha, they treat the Chinese as peasants," said another.

Boasting support for China's TD-LTE, a deal with China Mobile is possible, but hasn't been sealed yet.  With a four thousand kuai price tag, Apple seems hell bent on shutting out a large number of CM's subscribers, giving added impetus for consumers to spend their cash on the local boy made good, the Mi-3.

The only silver lining on this particularly grey and uninspiring cloud is that with the rollout happening in China and the US, Hong Kong, UK and other countries on September 20th there'll be fewer shady characters skulking outside of universities offering foreigners clammy grey-import iPhones.  So yay for that.  Kinda.

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Bo Xi Lai Trial Shows Divides Social Media

The trial of Bo Xi Lai split users on Weibo into two disinct camsp - those who supported him and shared his vision of a return to Mao-era politicking, and those support and applaud Xi jin Ping's war on corruption.

The trial also highlighted differences in the way Chinese use different social networks.  Details on the trial were tweeted live to a Weibo account belonging to the Jinan Intermediary Court, and everyone from citizen journalists to celebrities tweeted their opinions as the trial progressed.

On Weixin, which has nearly 400 million users, and is more similar to Facebook in that posts are only visible to approved "friends", users are exploiting the service for more intimate social events like weddings, and professionals use them to deal with their clients.

In short, despite being easier to censor, Chinese netizens are still using Weibo to voice their opinions to a large, anonymous group of followers, and take part in discussions.  Censorship is perhaps perceived as a necessary evil on the platform, and analysis has shown that 40% of the accounts opened are dormant.

Weixin, on the other hand is more difficult to censor, but easier and faster for Chinese people to send short messages through because the voice recording function mitigates the use of Pinyin input.  Messages are sent faster and more easily, but to a limited crowd, new legislation passed also increases the ability of authorities to crack down on anything that's deemed a rumor.

To get an idea of what's happening in the Chinese blogosphere, one turns to Weibo, but to do business and forge more personal relationships, Weixin in the app of choice.

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A Fly in the Oinment: Charles Xue Arrest

State media has been making a big thing of the arrest of Xue Manzi, known in the US as Charles Xue.  Arrested earlier this week on suspicion of soliciting prostitutes, it's till not clear what charges, if any he will face.  Coincidentally, Xue was quite a promienent voice on Weibo, with over 12 million followers, he frequently comments on social issues, and posts frequently about reform in China.  Making an example of him is obviously one of the governments top priorities when it comes to silencing dissenting voices online.

Not receiving quite the same amount of media attention is Cui Ya Dong, the High Court judge in Shanghai who has been accused by no less than 70 police officers of graft during his tenure as provincial chief in Chongqing.  By strange coincidence a video surface online of four Shanghai judges visiting a nightclub in Shanghai and leaving with a group of prostitutes.

In a letter signed with the thumbprints of 70 police officers, Cui was accused, amongst other thing of taking nearly 20RMB million in kickbacks and appropriating a huge amount of alcohol, totalling to around six tons.  Cui would later sell the liquor, bought with public funds, in Anhui.  As of the time of writing he is yet to be detained, but all references to him have been scrubbed from China search engines and social networks.

Also not in the news is the detention of Chinese reporter Liu Hu, who was arrested after posting message on Weibo accusing deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce, Ma Zheng Qi of dereliction, during time in...Chongqing.  Liu posted evidence that expose other corrupt officials in the city, but these posts were quickly deleted.

Since authorities aren't obligated to investigate accusation of corruption made by members of the public, nothing is done, unless someone has firsthand evidence somewhere.  For now it seems that while there is some effort to crackdown on graft in China, political motives are more often behind the trials and detentions that any kind of moral fibre.

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Bo Xi Lai Trial Transcripts - Weibo Users Make Their Own Revisions

Completely missing the point that censorsing court transcripts when you are trying to appear as transparent as possible, Quartz has a report on what exactly was left out of the official record on the last day of the trial of Bo Xi Lai.

Removing references to Bo receiving orders from superiors regarding the forging of Wang Li Jun's medical certificate, and threats from the disciplinary commission, official transcripts were published on the Jinan Intermediary Court's Weibo account.  Not content with the official version of events, Chinese netizens made their own revisions.

 

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More iPhone 5C Photos

 



Not content with an moronic celebrity leaking pictures of the new Apple device, another photo of the iPhone 5C was posted on Weibo, along with the message :

"The low-end iPhone 5C to be launched for Chinese consumers in September doesn't look much different than the Xiaomi Phone 2, right?"

 

Allegedly taken by an employee at the Pegatron factory, the batch is more than likely a test batch to confirm that the devices are working before they are boxed up for retailers.

Could Apple Succeed Where Google Failed?

Doing business in China isn't exactly easy.  With the protectionism, lack of any kind of copyright law adherence, and rabid, disgruntled Weibo users who take to the Interwebs every time a warranty isn't honored, you'd think that international brands would steer clear of trying to sell anything to anybody in China.

Since Google's unceremonious exit from the country in 2010, western brands have been having one hell of a tough time.  The Chinese government would rather see Chinese brands being sold to the Chinese, mostly because it bolsters their image of driving the economy to greater and greater heights, and not many of the people who control the real money have enough foreign business experience to make deals with the tech giants of Silicon Valley.

Apple has been having a hard time of late, with a laughable attack from the National Consumer Day Gala, and a number of anti-Apple editorials in state-media, USA Today examines if the  grovelling apology from CEO TIm Cook will be  just enough to shore up Apples sales for the foreseeable future.

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