Xinhua Passes off Porn as News. Again.

Not content with copying and pasting stories from satirical website The Onion, beleaguered hacks at the state run media outfit, Xinhua have apparently taken to copying and pasting rape porn.  Ahem.



If you've been around long enough, you'll remember that that in 2012, Xinhua ran a story that it stole from The Onion which awarded Kim Jong Un the title of World's Sexiest Man.  That particular article was hastily taken down, but this slideshow uses screengrabs from a rape fetish porn movie, is still alive and kicking.

Purporting to be an "actual record" of an execution, the slideshow shows "the world's darkest side", despite being neither, both Xinhua and The Global Times have published the pictures, trying to pass them off as "news".  The worrying thing is, this isn't the first time it's happened.

Thoughtful Global Times Editorial Provokes Unexpected Anger

The number one selling book in a Hong Kong store that specializes in selling book banned on the Chinese mainland is an apocalyptic novel entitled “2014: The Great Collapse”.  The story focuses on the fictionalized account of the downfall of the Chinese Communist Party.  It was something that hit a little too close to home when the CCP held meetings in April to discuss the problems facing the future of the Party.

Strengthening the Party has been a top priority of late, a task ideally suited to our good friends at The Global Times, who this week warned on “battles and bloodshed" should the Party ever collapse.  The hardy netizens on Sina Weibo didn't take too kindly to this kind of thing, The Global Times is usually more thoughtful when writing it's editorials after all.

 

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Total Recall: How Smearing Foreign Brands Could Backfire for China

Using product recalls to smear foreign companies and brands might not be working in quite the way that the Chinese government hopes for.

China is getting all het up about product recalls in China.  In an effort to show the Chinese people that shoddy goods produced domestically aren’t limited to domestically produced chopsticks, napkins, cooking oil...the air, reports of imported luxury goods being recalled over safety fears are turning in headline news.

After a humiliating scandal when it was discovered that farmers had been adding melamine to batches of milk formula in 2008, eight babies died and some 300,000 were left seriously ill.  Milk tamperers struck again in 2011, and then again 2012 after dangerously high levels of the fungal poison aflotoxin was discovered in the formula.  Last year another company issued a product recall after unacceptable levels of mercury were found in it’s milk powder.

So it’s no surprise that Chinese parents and grandparents, who are often the ones who care for young children in the family, are wary of buy Chinese baby milk.  Chinese consumers switched in their thousands to foreign brands, causing product shortages in Hong Kong and forcing the government to impose strict limits on how much consumers could bring into the country.  With profits of Chinese milk producers in the toilet, some kind of PR offensive was needed, if not to encourage the idea that foreign products aren’t as good (the prices of foreign branded milk powder are rising, despite global supplies increasing) as domestically produced formula, then high profile recalls will serve to remind people that milk powder bought in Hong Kong is just a susceptible to product tampering as that produced in mainland China.

The first attempt to demonize foreign companies came in early July with  The National Development and Reform Commission launching an anti-trust probe to investigate the possibility of price fixing.  After the investigation was announced, Nestle and Danone slashed their prices by 20%.  Despite the high prices, sales remained strong simply because Chinese consumers don’t trust the Chinese companies to make products safe for human consumption.  Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Wendy Ma, a new mother in Guangzhou said "It's HK$210, I don't know how much it costs on the mainland. I didn't even bother to check. It's not an option for me to consider. Most mothers who I know have done their research either buy from Hong Kong or go to the trouble of getting shopping agents from overseas to source infant formula.”

In 2008, when the melamine scandal was uncovered, the government, embarrassed by the number of deaths involved decided that "because it is not an infectious disease, so it's not absolutely necessary for us to announce it to the public.".  And while it’s been left to Fonterra to explain why it took a year to report that contamination of it’s milk, kidney stones in infants fed Chinese brands were found up to two years before the whistle was blown, and then only after several months did the story break in the newspapers.

Sanlu itself received complaints from parents of sick children as early as December 2007, but no tests were carried out until much later in June 2008.  Three months later, the Chinese authorities were later alerted by the New Zealand government.  Additionally, the company offered search engine giant Baidu a three million yuan to play down negative coverage of the scandal.  Not something that their PR company Teller International had in mind when they suggested “cooperation” with Internet news outlets.

While the health concerns are genuine, and getting news out to people who may be affected by the taints, the signal to noise ration in coverage of these types of stories in the Chinese soon descends into parody.  Bellicose editorials and selective amnesia seek to give the slightest slip up by a foreign company or government a pro-Chinese spin.  Using the product recall to try to win back consumers to buying Chinese milk powder, despite the terrible track record, a People’s Daily editorial warned consumers not to “blindly trust” foreign products.  Obviously, it’s better to wait and see if infants will be struck down with aflotoxin poisoning or melamine overdoses before consumers distrust a food company.  The transparent attempts to coax consumers back to Chinese products don’t go down well on Weibo:  "Model Brother II" said: "Foreign milk products get contaminated due to negligence, which is equivalent to 'manslaughter'. Domestic producers intentionally add melamine to milk powder, which is 'intentional murder'."  Some went further suggesting that the pre-emptive recall showed Fonterra’s sense of corporate responsibility, especially when compared to the efforts of Sanlu, which produced the melamine laced milk in 2008.

Aggressive PR campaigns against non-Chinese companies that outsell and outperform their Chinese rivals aren’t new inventions.  State television has used it’s “Consumer Rights Day Gala” to single out companies that have done particularly well in the mainland, and have left Chinese companies with shelves full of stock and empty bank account.  Apple and Volkswagen have both run afoul of CCTV “investigations”.  Small problems concerning warranties and dodgy gearboxes were spun out into the old story of foreign companies trying to pass off inferior products to gullible Chinese consumers.

The whole thing fell apart when it became apparent that Weibo users of influential accounts had been bribed by producers of the program.  Although participants claimed that their accounts had been hacked, the fact that the feckless tweeters hadn’t edited out CCTV’s instructions in the messages that they wanted to go out sealed the fate of the microbloggers.  Ironically, the show that promoted itself as protecting consumer trust had irreversibly damaged it’s own reputation with Chinese consumers.  Sales of Apple products don’t appear to have suffered any because of the “expose”, and some suggest that the tech company may have actually benefited from the coverage.

Luxury cars, a favorite of China’s new middle class are also a target for China’s questionable General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.  This month, BMW floated into the governments crosshairs, forced this week to recall 140,000 vehicles because of a faulty seal that could cause water corrosion.  “In terms of financial impact it’s basically zero,” said Robin Zhu, automotive analyst at Bernstein Research. “In terms of brand damage it’s also negligible.”

Leveraging minor faults in the final product and BMW’s “environmental standards” (the joke of being that the government is accusing a foreign car brand of contributing to the infamous air quality in China), an application by BMW and it’s Chinese partner Brilliance to double production at their plant in Shenyang was denied.  Again, the reaction on the Chinese Internet boards has been mostly praise, since the company is seen as being responsible in it’s efforts to provide safe products.  “At least a large corporation like this is willing to put customer’s safety first. I’ve never heard of a recall initiated by a local auto manufacturer, let alone a large-scale recall like this,” wrote one blogger.  The ghosts of Sanlu have yet to be laid to rest.

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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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The Unlikey Rise of Chinese Cricket

If there’s one thing that Chinese do badly, it’s sports.  It’s not the Olympics, were children are put through tortuous Soviet style training in order to ensure China is at the top of the medal leader board, we’re talking about that most revered and lucrative of games, football.

Basketball does really well in China, it’s cool, it’s American, and it’s pretty easy to set up a basketball court almost anywhere, especially in the overcrowded cities were urban space is at a premium.  Football, however, is another story.  You need a pitch, you need grass, and mostly it’s played outside, and given China’s appalling air quality, you don’t want to be spending a huge amount of time outside, and then there’s all that running about and the risk of getting injured.  All of which go some way to explaining why there’s little love lost between the national football team, and the Chinese fans.  And when we use the word “fans”, we of course mean Chinese people who are fans of football, not Chinese people who are fans of the Chinese team - kind of like the way that pop music fans hate Justin Beiber.

When the men’s football team played Thailand in June, there were no fans waiting at the hotel for autographs, and when they lost, enraged fans blocked the team coach from leaving and started a riot that injured 100 people.  The team’s official Weibo account is replete with apologies and excuses for their poor performances, but they find little sympathy online.  The English language coverage of the match didn’t do them any favours either, saying that “Poor possession, poor team work and most of all no fighting spirit resulted in the most humiliating defeat for years for China’s national soccer team.”  They managed to make it to the World Cup once, have been knocked out by Iraq for the 2014 competition.

Desperate to prove themselves better than the Koreans and the Japanese - football is one sport among many that the Chinese must prove themselves to be the best at so everyone will love them...or something - China has spent a lot of money on upping their game, but nothing seems to work.

Expensive foreign coaches have been lured to Beijing, corrupt elements in the sport have been tracked down and punished and players have been imported from overseas - still the Chinese seethe with anger when their team inevitably suffers another humiliating defeat.  The problem is that the people who actually play in the national side have little in the way of actual sporting talent, and, as always, are more interested in making as much money as possible while their knees are in proper working order.

With the problems plaguing the football squad, it might not be the best time for the Chinese government to think about launching a national cricket squad.  Which they have.  In Shenyang, which is, apparently, the new home of cricket in China, and, in contrast to the talentless poster boys in the football team, they’re pretty good.  Well, the women are at least.

Interest might be growing the game domestically, but they still have only one grass wicket, which was proudly used in the 2010 Asian Games.  With little in the way of cricketing tradition, and the apparent disinterest in partaking in team games, lack of equipment is the least of their worries.  China isn’t exactly known for it’s vast expanses of greenery, that the game demands - concrete cricket pitches just aren’t the done thing.  If the Chinese urban sprawl can push the the panda, China’s national animal, to the brink of extinction, there’s little hope for the enthusiastic, but cash strapped amateur cricket teams.

The problem for competitive sports in China is that while children have PE lessons in primary school, as soon as students hit the age at which they should start studying for the dreaded gaokao, the cramming sessions leave little room for sports.  But we shouldn’t count the Chinese out of making waves on the international cricket scene just yet.

After years of being banned in the People’s Republic, insanely young Chinese golfing prodigies dazzled in last years US Open.  Parents desperate to turn their children into the next Tiger Woods, spare no expense in providing the best trainers, equipment and opportunities to transform them into sporting superstars, and their parents into multi-millionaires.  If the likes of Sachin Tendulkar could inspire Chinese parents that there’s money in them thar cricket cricket whites, then there’d be no stopping them.  In the same way the Indian super-rich aspire to London properties, the Chinese super-super-rich could learn to aspire to appreciating the intricacies of a medium paced leg spinner.

The Chinese have set their sights on the 2014 World T20 to be played in Bangladesh, but government officials have confided that their real goal would be the 2019 Cricket World Cup.  Money has poured into help support China’s most promising players, with a select few being sent overseas to play in English and Australian clubs, where their enthusiasm for the sport has impressed many professional players.

Famously, failure is not an option for those representing China on the international sporting stage.  In search of the next Olympic gold medal machines, children as young as five years old are put through training courses that would make western social workers weep - all of the glory of being the best.  If cricket became an Olympic sport, there would be no shortage of Chinese cricketers willing to represent their country - given China’s population, if only 1 in 10,000 made the grade, that would mean that there would be 100,000 potential players.  Let’s just hope that they don’t get the same kind of attention from their domestic fans as the football team does.

A Risky Business: Whistleblowing in China

In a bid to bolster it's image in China and abroad, Xi Jin Ping is leading a crackdown on corruption, but the consequences that some whistleblowers face might take the wind out of the CCP's anti-graft sails. 

The English voice of Chinese party propaganda, The China Daily, could hardly contain itself when Ed Snowden went public with details of the NSA’s PRISM project.  “This is not the first time that U.S. government agencies’ wrongdoings have aroused widespread public concern,” it bellowed.  Certain that political Armageddon would follow, “experts” painted a picture of “strained” US-Chinese ties, with the reassurance that hardworking Chinese diplomats would once again ensure world peace.

The news came after a testing time for the Chinese.  A PLA backed hacker group had been identified and publicly exposed by US cybersecurity analysts, Google accused the Chinese of hacking into it’s servers, and Hilary Clinton had singled out China especially her Internet freedoms tour.  Thankfully, news of the NSA spying on it’s own citizens, using services that had long been demonized in the Chinese press, broke in the nick of time.  Fueling the fire further, the whistleblower had sought refuge in Hong Kong, prompting a slew of amusing tweets, one noting that a freedom of speech hacktivist seeking asylum in China would be akin to a religious rights activist seeking refuge in Tibet.  State media wasted no time in using the story to reiterate China’s commitment to cybersecurity, while neatly sidestepping any suggestion that it’s government actively censors Internet content and selectively blocks sites based outside of China.

Blocking social media sites in China has a number of benefits for the country’s ruling Communist Party.  First, there’s little chance of a copycat Jasmine Revolution, Facebook being blamed for everything from Tibetan self-immolations to riots in Xinjiang.  Secondly, and possibly more importantly, the Chinese start-ups that would ordinarily face competition from the likes of Twitter, Youtube and Facebook are free to flourish with millions of users being served millions of ads.  The systems operate within Chinese cyberspace, and are therefore subject to the filtering, deletion and blocking that is part and parcel of Internet life these days in China.

Chinese spokespeople repeatedly cower behind a variety of excuses to justify it’s blocking of “harmful content”.  The Internet in China isn’t censored, it’s carefully managed “in accordance with relevant laws and regulations” - dissenting voices are quietly shut down, and unfavorable news coverage from overseas is blocked by what has become known as The Great Firewall of China.  When an investigation by the New York Times revealed former Premier Wen Jia Bao had a personal fortune of $120million, the entire NYT website was blacklisted and blocked lest his incredible wealth become common knowledge amongst the Chinese.

Tackling corruption, especially with Bo Xi Lai’s trial looming, is top of the CCP’s agenda.  It’s not the first time that the government has tried to get a grip on backhanders in the People’s Republic.  In 2009, the government set up a website that allowed citizens to report anyone suspected of graft, traffic was so high that hours after it was officially launched, it crashed, unable to cope with the huge volume of traffic.

Events took a more sinister turn earlier in the July of this year, when a well known anti-corruption crusader, Li Jian Xin was attacked, kidnapped and doused in acid.  After being hacked at with knives, he was left in a pool of his own blood to be discovered by a local woman in a park several hours later.  Using the pseudonym “Uncle Ou of Huiyang”, Li had posted several reports on a website that embarrassed local officials.  Li was left blind in one eye and had to have two skin grafts in Huizhou Municipal Hospital following the attack.

Despite publicly calling for more whistleblowers like Li to report cases of corruption, and the technical provision of whistleblower protection established, the law doesn’t provide adequate protection when it comes to revenge crimes.  The maximum sentence that can be handed down in such a case is seven years.  As is common in China, the law exist, but they’re just not enforced by anyone.  Those who make legal challenges are often hounded and victimized.  Earlier last month, after signing an open letter that demanded certain officials disclose their assets, eight people were placed under house arrest in Beijing.  Their lawyer, Xu Zhi Yong had his computers and mobile phone confiscated.

Journalists who try to expose the misdeeds of the Party elite.  Lei Zhengfu, a cadre in Bo Xi Lai’s former stomping ground of Chongqing was filmed having sex with his 18-year-old mistress and was subsequently arrested, imprisoned and kicked out of the Communist Party.  The blogger and amateur muckraker Zhu Rui Feng who came into possession of the Lei’s sex tape.

Not counting a couple of death threats that were probably made by disgruntled associates of Lei, Zhu was didn’t attract the attention that had traditionally accompanied such high profile exposes.  In an interview with the Washington Post, he reflected, “In the past, I’ve encountered a lot of threats, censorship and even kidnapping, but this time, my Web site wasn’t shut down. There was no blocking or attack.  I think maybe the sky really is changing.”  Two months later, the police, claiming to be from the Beijing Security Bureau were knocking on his door.  Worried that he might be “disappeared” by the authorities in Chongqing, Zhu has sent copies of other, unreleased sex tapes to friends overseas, with instructions that should he go missing, the tapes should be released.

The extramarital exploits create another, more unlikely, breed of whistleblower - the jilted lover.  Fan Yue, a deputy director at The State Administration of Archives, was due to marry a 26-year-old, Jin Yang Nan.  When she discovered that he had married long before they even met, Jin took to the Internet to get her revenge, posting photos and a detailed shopping list of the luxury goods that Fan had showered her with - luxury items that he shouldn’t have been technically able to buy on his “modest” government salary.

The first time “they went shopping, Ji said, the couple went to Prada and paid $10,000 for a skirt, a purse and a scarf. A month after they met, Fan rented an apartment for them that cost $1,500 a month and spent more than $16,000 on bedsheets, home appliances, an Apple desktop and a laptop, according to Ji. Then he bought her a silver Audi A5, priced in the United States at about $40,000, she said. ... 'He put cash into my purse every day,' said Ji in a letter to the Communist Party complaining about Fan's behavior," the story was originally that carried on The Washington Post revealed.

The photos, which spread across the Internet faster than Chinese censors could delete them show the kind of life that one can lead in the upper echelons of government.  After they had been engaged for a year, Ji repeatedly asked why they hadn’t started planning their wedding, and details of his existing marriage soon emerged.  Determined to get even, Ji published the photos on the Internet, and started handing out videos on DVD at the gates of Zhong Nan Hai - the secretive government compound in Beijing.

It’s apparent that the anti-corrupt campaign is nothing more than another PR stunt by the Chinese Communist Party.  When it was announced that Xi Jin Ping would be cleaning up the Party’s reputation, a number of anonymous editorials suggested that wiping out corruption completely would be impossible and that it would be best to focus on reducing it to a level that would be acceptable to the general populous.

State media has pounced on the court cases, proclaiming them China’s watershed moment, where the rule of law actually does mean rule of law.  Xinhua, the state run media organization reported on the trial of form Ministry of Railways chief, Liu Zhi Jun saying “The sentencing shows on one hand the judicial system and top leaders' resolve to target both high-ranking "tigers" and low-ranking "flies" in its anti-corruption efforts, and on the other hand the judicial spirit of everyone is equal before the law,” adding that the Party was “Ringing a renewed alarm to the 85 million Party members, especially officials, Liu's case reflects the CPC Central Committee's determination to investigate each graft case and punish any corrupt official.”  An editorial by the China News Service said that the indictment of Bo Xi Lai "tells the whole party and the entire society that in a country ruled by law," it said. "No matter who you are, no matter how high your ranking is, you will be seriously investigated and severely punished if you violate party discipline and state law."

Even officials who are standing trial for bribery and corruption, the off-center wonderland of Chinese politics means that despite earning illicit millions, many still have the support of the public. Neatly turning something that highlights the very worst in a corrupt, one party state, the crackdown on graft turned the murder of Neil Heywood and the imprisonment of Gu Ku Lai for his poisoning became the flagship of the "no one is above the law" rhetoric that the Party is so desperate to impress on the Chinese people.  However, given the actual good that Bo Xi Lai did in his home city of Chongqing, he still has his fans.

In a Marketplace China report last year, the housing plans and school reforms that we enacted under Bo’s leadership of the city meant that even after he was placed under house arrest, many Chongqing residents didn’t believe that he’d been arrested.  Indeed, there are plans for some of his more fervent supporters to protest outside the courthouse in Jinan when the trial begins.  Even in one of the most high profile (and damaging) anti-corruption cases, the whistleblower who blew the lid off the whole thing, Bo's former partner in crime, Wang Li Jun is serving a 15 year sentence for abuse of power.

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Satirizing Shenzhen Corruption

Despite his promises that he will tackle the growing problem of Chinese corruption, Radio Free Asia reports that "at least 14 activists associated with a nascent anti-graft movement have been formally arrested or criminally detained since March, on charges ranging from subversion to public order offenses."

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