Why Chinese People Buy Empty Properties

The BBC reports on why exactly Chinese are buying not just second homes, but third and fourth homes - some of them haven't even been built yet.

Official Sacked After Calling Chinese People "Shameless"

During a dinner that totalled nearly 10,000rmb, Party boss Liang Wenyong laid into the Chinese people, not knowing that he was being secretly filmed.  Letting loose on a tirade against ungrateful ordinary Chinese people, the rotund Liang, who is obivously no strange to a fish supper, said  "[Chinese citizens] hold rice bowls and eat pork provided by you, but they still curse your mother. Therefore, the common people, the shameless, do not deserve your attention.".

Needless to say, the video immediately went viral on Chinese social media sites, and the axe fell on Liang, who has been indefinitely suspended from his post.  Liang firing follows the trial, and subsequent imprisonment of a number of CCP small fry, all of whom met their ends thanks to surreptitiously shot video.

Budding pornstar and confused frog impersonator Lei Zhengfu has his appeal turned down earlier this week and will spent 13 years behind bars - a video of him banging his 18 year old mistress hit the Interwebs last year.  Yang Dacai, or "Watch Brother" was sent down for 14 years after he was spotted at the scene of tragic bus accident grinning widely and wearing an expensive designer watch.

Even with all the arrests of Big V's and black PR operators, embarrasing videos of state employees caught in compromising situations are still surfacing.  Go rumor crackdown!

China's Top Graduates Prefer Homeschooling Their Children

Chinese high school students face  nothing much but an epic memory test at the end of their compulsory education, a new generation of China's graduates are preferring to school their children at home rather than put them through the meat grinder of the Chinese education system.

As more and more of the elite choose to send their children to schools and universities overseas, often to be immersed in a learning environment that is completely alien to them, Chinese parents are demanding more from the state education system that it can offer.  Speaking to AFP, Zhang Qaofeng explained why he took his son out of the state-run system and chose to educate him at home.

“I want my son to receive a style of education which is much more participative, not just the teacher talking while students listen. Most of my son's time is set aside for following his interests, or playing.”

Despite a literacy rate of 99% in China, innovation and original research are the worst performing areas of industry, with knock-offs of western products rife, many parents feel that schools and universities focus too much on exam performance.  Several high profiled child abuse scandals widely reported in the Chinese media are also to blame for the rise in home schooled children.

The practice is understandably popular with another demographic - the Christian Chinese who want their kids to have a more "Bible-centered" education that they would be denied in a state school.

Official word on the matter is, as one might expect with such thorny issues entering into the debate such are religion, divided on the matter.  Chinese law requires that all children are enrolled in school from the age of seven and be subjected nine gruelling years culminating in the infamous gaokao exam.

Some parents defy the law,  Zhang told reporters, the results of his teaching already evident in his eight-year-old Zhang Hongwu, “My son's Chinese and English skills are much higher than other children his age.  I plan to teach my son at home until he's ready to attend university. I hope he can attend a great university like Harvard, Oxford or Cambridge, I'm 95 per cent certain he can achieve that.”

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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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Visa Delays Complicating FDA Inspections

US efforts to increase the monitoring of Chinese drug production are being held back by China's refusal to grant visas in any kind of timely fashion.  Since receiving an extra $10m in funding, the FDA has been able to send more inspectors to China, or they would be able to if any diplomatic visas had been granted.  One inspector reportedly withdrew his application after waiting an epic 9 months for his visa.

The FDA wants to add another 10 members of staff to it's China operation, but the reluctance to issue visas by the Chinese embassy has limited visits by FDA staff to short term trips.

“Unlike the inspectors who come for short-term trips from the US, they’re able to develop in-depth knowledge of the Chinese system, which not only benefits American consumers and patients, but also Chinese regulators, who benefit from the training and capacity building that FDA’s in-country staff do,” the FDA spokesman writes us.

“And they’re able to participate in our ongoing efforts to better understand the Chinese regulatory system, so that we can better protect American consumers, and promote public health. We believe that timely issuance of visas for FDA staff will be beneficial to both the US and China, and that it’s in China’s best interest to issue these visas, and move on to our next stage of collaboration"

The FDA is keen to ramp up it's monitoring after the tainted heparin scandal in the country that was linked to 81 deaths in the States.

Chinese People Are Not More Civilised Than Africans

Over at the China Africa Project, there is a translation of a blog post by a Chinese worker at a mine in Mauritania, who wrote about his observations from working in an African country.

His post attracted quite a bit of attention from Chinese netizens, and their translated comments are posted on the same webpage.

Commenting on the actions of a supervisor, he wrote that

One of the locals asked why management had requested Africans to unload the truck while the Chinese were not asked to do the same. Actually, he didn’t know that the Chinese management, chefs, etc., had all carried cement bags at the site before. Those who earn a lot of money and those who don’t all work when they are required to. After all, supervisors have a sense of responsibility.

Remarks on the "lively and cheerful" Chinese bathing environment:

After we finish work in the evening, we Chinese people shower together. When there are many people in the shower room, it is lively and cheerful. The locals are not used to this kind of interaction with other people in the nude. I haven’t been to their compound and seen them shower, but one of my black friends told that that they do not shower together. Other people do not enter when a person is taking a shower, so it was a waste that the company installed seven or eight other shower heads in the shower room.

You can read more here

Why Are the Chinese Interested In Tonga?

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"] Embassy of China in the Kingdom of Tonga (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

It’s well known that the Chinese, and the Indians are investing heavily in Africa.  But what are the Chinese doing in the South Pacific island of Tonga?

Early last month, the New Zealand government suspended aid to the small South Pacific island of Tonga.  The spat is apparently over a plane, a “gift” from the Chinese

government that is yet to meet international safety standards.  Despite the fact the plane isn’t in service, a New Zealand-based company that had been operating domestic flights in Tonga shut down operations, claiming that it couldn’t compete with an airline that was receiving free planes from a foreign government interested in leasing land from the Tongan government.  The suspension of aid, mostly aimed at developing infrastructure to help the ailing tourist industry comes at a particularly inconvenient time.  The whale watching season is getting underway, and the lack of any planes to ferry tourists around is bound to play havoc with local economies.

Concern over the aircraft that was donated to RealTonga, the rival homegrown passenger service was not unfounded.  Since 2009, that particular model has been involved in seven “incidents”, three so serious that the aircraft concerned had be written off.  In a statement, Foreign Affairs Minster, Murray McCully said "Significant safety issues have been raised regarding the plans of the new air service operator [to use the Xian MA60]. Our tourism support will remain on hold until safety issues are resolved to the satisfaction of respected international aviation experts,"

Unsurprisingly, given the quality of Chinese buildings, and the general behavior of Chinese tourists abroad some Tongans are underwhelmed by what the Chinese have done so far.  When the BBC’s John Pickford visited the island, he met with cabinet minister Clive Edwards, who diplomatically described some of the Chinese built buildings as “a disappointment”.  Chinese made roads lack the proper drainage systems, so when the rainy season hits, roads become impassable.  Massive, government buildings, built in the typical grandiose Chinese style aren’t designed to cope with the tropical heat and they’re impossible to keep cool in the summer.

The Chinese invasion of Tonga hasn’t gone smoothly.  In 2001, 600 of them were given a years grace to leave after the Chinese government expressed concerns over the high number of robberies that targeted Chinese businesses.  Tensions between the Chinese and Tongans came to a head again in 2006, when rioters looted Chinese owned shops and left 8 people dead.  Much of the central business district was destroyed, prompting New Zealand and Australia to send in troops.  China has been working hard to improve it’s image with the locals.  More than 300 Chinese fled the country, fearing that riots were racially motivated.

In a small poll conducted in 2011 by the Pacific Institute of Public Policy, China came out ahead, perceived as a more important trading partner than Australia or New Zealand, but the negative sentiment towards droves of Chinese immigrating to the country was apparent.  Speaking to AFP, Derek Brien, head of the organization that conducted the survey said "there's this disconnect between a perception that China aid, China diplomacy, is good and better than say Australia and New Zealand because the Chinese aid and development comes without strings attached to it.  And yet there is this backlash going on about the rise in migration. It's something we need to understand more."

China is investing in South Pacific islands in the same way that it invests in African republics, extending it’s influence in an irresistible mix of aid, loans and equipment.  At the time of writing, China had taken over 60% of Tongan state debt, with the government owning nearly $108million to the Chinese Import-Export Bank.

In return for muscling in on the previous relationship Tonga had with New Zealand, the Chinese hope for subsidies on Tongan fish stocks, helpful support in the UN and first refusal on their potential vast mineral resources to shore up the rare earth mineral industry back in the mainland.  Unfortunately, the gifts, like the MA60 turboprop, without western safety approval remain useless white elephants that the Tongans are stuck with as the Chinese move over in droves to capitalise on the growing demand for cheap everyday goods that Chinese factories turn out by the million.  Batteries and toothpaste are most sought after, and if local Chinese store owners don’t have it, they know someone who has it.

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Why They Do That Thing They Do

No other country has so many different opinions held about it than China.  You may see a country that is gripped by a lethargic, outdated, backward communist dictatorship, you might see a country with a hideous human rights record, others may see a country steeped in history, now transformed to a commercial dynamo.  One question that many ask is why the Communist Party of China does what it does, punishing apparently minor crimes with obscene penalties, often for the most unfathomable of reasons.  Language complications don't help much, at best, Mandarin translates badly into English, and the complex, interwoven, multilayered nature of Chinese culture only serves to confuse the layperson even more.

The first thing to remember is that largely communism in China is dead.  The original ideas that fueled the civil war, resulting in the creation of the People's Republic has been superseded by a rampant free market, and a lust for money.  One of my high level students came to her class one afternoon and showed me her application for membership of the CCP.  I asked if she was a communist, and she said she wasn't, it's just that party membership is good when you are trying to find a job.  Rather than being a commitment to a political ideology, the CCP is seen as something of an additional required qualification when job hunting, rather than a overt statement of belief.

It's here that we find something of a dichotomy.  While the people themselves are probably as interested in politics as the average American or Briton, the Party does have control of all the media in the country, and therefore is able to create the illusion of a China built on a pure political, socialist motivations, and gives the impression that the country is highly politicized.  This, as any long term visitor to the country will testify, is untrue.

A myriad of rules and regulations exist, some them conflicting, and over half of them pointlessly bureaucratic, almost all of them are bent or circumvented in some way.  My experience with the visa agent is one incident: I was able to procure a business visa without having the proper paperwork or intentions.  I then worked illegally at the local police academy.

For the most part, Chinese people see the government as an elderly grandparent.  They tell them they are going to do something one way, and then go off to do it their way.  The government is somewhat embarrassed by the gross liberties that are taken with the supposed law of the land, which explains the often used phrase "in accordance with Chinese law"  - this is nothing more than an attempt to try to improve the image of the Chinese legal system.

The laws have done nothing to deter the determined money makers in China.  Counterfeiting, as we shall examine later, is rife.  A trip to the Silk Market, Pearl Market, or Dazhalan will reveal fake watches, clothes, underwear, consumer electronics, cosmetics, books as well as the perennial favorite, fake DVDs (a market rumored to be controlled by the Chinese army).  Supposedly, since joining the World Trade Organization, China has strengthened it's intellectual property laws, unfortunately, no one has told the counterfeiters.  There are probably more arrests, and there's definitely more publicity about the arrests, but the counterfeiters continue to flaunt the rules.  During the Olympic Games, fake Olympic souvenirs were available to buy around Tiananmen Square.

The second point to bear in mind is that debate amongst Chinese people about the politics of their country is an exercise in futility.  The two generations of adults that have known nothing but the rule of the CCP now exists in China, and from the complete and total control of the media that the party has, the party's philosophy, such as it is, is deeply and indelibly ingrained in the hearts of minds of the thirtysomethings and their parents.

When you look at it from their point of view, Chinese people do owe a lot to the CCP.  Less people than ever live in poverty, the country has unparalleled economic growth, and more and more Chinese are studying abroad, taking on new ideas and broadening the horizons.  The young adults in China, to praphrase Harold MacMillan, have never had it so good, and it's all thanks to the pragmatic and technocratic leadership of the Politburo.

Closer inspection, as always, reveals a somewhat different story.

After the excesses of Mao Zedong led to a paranoid, closed and nose diving Chinese society, the official line is that a policy of "Reform and Opening Up" was initiated by Deng Xiao Ping.  The idea was to create “socialism with Chinese characteristics”.  This in itself has presented a confused view of China.  Essentially, the government maintains that it is essentially Marxist/Maoist, but that it has cherry picked ideas from Western capitalist nations to fit it's own ends.  This demonstrates the first, most distinct characteristic of the Chinese Communist Party - big, new ideas are trumpeted, but the u-turn performed after the idea fails is kept quiet.  The Chinese took the worst of all Western ideas in an attempt to rapidly modernize and unify the country, and ended up with a communist leadership.

The Chinese government basically rewrote the rules on what exactly they were supposed to be. Communism wasn't working, the country had been left in chaos after the Cultural Revolution, and China was heading back to where it started.  The CCP would have people believe that this writing and rewriting is all part of the master plan that will create a harmonious, socialist society, but while they've acknowledged that the creation of the People's Republic was an irreversible change from the old feudal capitalist ways to the new socialist ones, they managed to hustle the Chinese people into believing that they're still dyed-in-the-blood communists, only this time with more money.  Since the Chinese people are living the best lives Chinese people have lived for a long time, it's hard to disagree with them.

The biggest hustle has been the idea that everything that is happening now is a conscious, premeditated pro-action by the Chinese government, but empirical analysis shows a different truth:  the Chinese government doesn't start doing things, they stop doing things.  The CCP just stops standing in people's way, and then takes the credit for making a positive contribution to the lives of 1.3 billion people.  The trend shows that they're more likely to do this when they're about to be pushed by the people.

This presents problem for the government.  How to convince over a billion people not to march on Beijing and kick the Politburo out of The Great Hall of the People.  Since communism is no longer a viable option, the powers that be have to find another way of keeping the masses in line.  They had to find a way of convincing people that living in China wasn’t so bad, and that having a military dictatorship/kleptocracy in power was a good thing.  The answer, as it turned out, was fairly obvious: nationalism.

Chinese nationalistic indoctrination begins at an early age for the people of China.  A new song that kindergarten teachers wrote for their students to recite every morning recently turned up translated into English on the Internet.  Entitled Go China!  2009, the song started off in village schools, and has spread to Chinese-only schools in Shanghai (adopted alongside the annual Anti-Japan Day).

It's been the long time goal of nearly every leader of China from the earliest dynasties to unify China and create a single Chinese country.  Handily, China has had Tibet, Taiwan and Xinjiang separatists to either create problems to rally proud Chinese into defending the need for a unified China, or present golden opportunities for showcasing the elite Chinese security services.  Ironically, before 1991, both the sides across the Taiwan Strait wanted the same thing – create a unified China - the problem was, of course, which kind of China – a plain old vanilla republic, or a communist people's republic.

In Taiwan's case, the general consensus at the moment is to support the status quo, occasional outrage and saber rattling comes from the mainland government to try to remind everyone who's actually in charge of the place (most recently the $6.5billion weapons deal between the US and Taiwan understandable angered Beijing because the weapons were sold to enable the island to defend itself from China").  At other times, steps are taken accompanied by typical communist pomp when something actually goes to plan.  The biggest PR coup was the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997.  After nearly 800 years, China was finally one nation under Jiang Zemin.

The use of euphemisms when talking about national embarrassments (or what are perceived as national embarrassment) are common in mainland China.  “Mass incidents are protests or demonstrations and one of my students referred to the Cultural Revolution as a period of "silliness".  Protests and riots are a source of embarrassment to the government because they show a loss of control by the police and party over the people.  When a riot erupts in an already sensitive are of the country, like, say, Tibet, a swift and uncompromising effort to regain control is almost guaranteed.  A media black out, followed by international confusion usually follows.

Immediately after the riots broke out in Tibet and the surrounding areas in Sichuan, the Chinese government locked down Tibet, interested in keeping foreign journalists out while they struggled to regain control over the rioting monks.  The only reporter who was in the Tibetan capital at the time was James Miles, who had planned a trip there, which just happened to coincide with the "mass incident".

While Wen Jia Bao blamed the Dalai Lama for masterminding the rioting, Miles reported that he saw little in the way of organization, observing an eruption rather than a planned, premeditated protest.  The media blackout included The Guardian website, Youtube, and parts of Yahoo! News.  Footage of Tibetans rioting was playing constantly on new channels, and the People's Daily demanded that the CCP resolutely crush the 'Tibet independence' forces' conspiracy and sabotaging activities.  When journalists were allowed into Tibet, translators were not provided for western writers, and it was up to the Taiwanese press to report on comments that were made in Chinese and Tibetan by monks.  Premier Wen Jia Bao claimed that "there is ample fact and we also have plenty of evidence proving that this incident was organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique although none was ever presented, and none is unlikely ever to be presented.

In it's current form, the CCP is more similar now to American neo-conservatives, creating and providing solutions to what amount to wildly exaggerated problems.  Wen Jia Bao says that the Dalai Lama masterminded the rioting and violence through a complicated communication system from India (a system that was detailed by the government's media mouthpiece, Xinhua), while on the other hand, the Dalai Lama has repeatedly called for autonomy rather than independence, and has been jilted at the conference table by the Chinese delegates.

One of the hurdles that both westerners and the Chinese government have to overcome is the idea that there are insurmountable cultural differences between the two that will forever cause friction and misunderstanding.  Where the western media sees a brutal crackdown, the Chinese see the maintenance of law and order.  The big problem comes when Chinese try to sell western media the same thing they've already sold to the Chinese people.  For example, the idea that the Dalai Lama is in fact, an international terrorist mastermind is easily assimilated by the local populous, but a more sophisticated audience would and does dismiss the idea as ridiculous.

The CCP is caught in an unenviable situation where it needs to project it's international image as a modern and progressive country, satisfying the new generation of wealthy Chinese entrepreneurs and taking care of it's aging population who both fought for a New China, and lived through the worst of Chairman Mao's excesses.

Criticism is a cornerstone of Maoism.  The only problem is that when the CCP is criticized, or even worse, thinks it's being criticized, they don't take too kindly to it.  What the CCP is most worried about, and most anxious to remove is not just direct criticism, but the implication that there is a problem that isn't being addressed.

There are two important concepts that are difficult to grasp for Westerners living in or visiting China.  The first is the idea of "face", which equates closely to public appearance.  If one person gets angry with another, then both people lose face, the person who instigated the fight loses out because he is seen as being unable to control his feelings, and the guy being yelled at loses face too as the target of those feelings.  This idea extends into the realm of international politics too.

While the CCP excelled at banning independent media so that it could monopolize images for it's domestic audience, it's the lack of independent reporting that has created a credibility gulf between the CCP and western media.  As Beijing based PR guru Will Moss put it, "China is much better at dictating ideas to a captive audience than at selling them to an open one.".