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.

Xiamen Chengguan Acid Attack

Not really good news, but we all probably saw it coming - 18 officials have been hospitalized after being doused in sulphuric acid as they were trying to demolish an illegally built warehouse in Tong'an, Xiamen.

The public security goons, who have taken to parading around the cities they patrol in combat gear, were taking part in a "a joint law enforcement action lead by the district land and resources department" when they were attacked by a man wielding a bottle of car battery replenisher.  Images were posted on Weibo of the chengguan involved licking their wounds in hospital three days ago, but news of the incident only surfaced this weekend.

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Huang Nubo: Saving Sharks Good, Fighting Global Warming Bad

With adverts  featuring the rich and slightly richer running across subway billboards and TV promoting worthy messages such as "the killing ends when the trade ends" and the hugely successful "I'm FINished with shark fins", you might think that the tide is turning when it comes to conservation in China.

The problem is that Chinese celebs wanting to jump on the oh-so-fashionable saving the Earth's wildlife have other agendas, especially if they happen to be property developers.

In 2012, WildAid gushed about the anti-shark fin soup PR offensive on it's website, promoting it's PSA (that's public service announcement, for you non-PR luvvies) that  tycoon Huang Nubo filmed for them, along with a number of other real estate magnates.  Peter Knights, Executive Director of WildAid, enthusiastically wrote of the campaign, “We hope this is the first step in comprehensive legal protection for sharks in China. We are thrilled to have the support of Mr. Huang, Ms. Wei, and other CEOs representing the Chinese business community.”

While Huang's intentions of saving rare shark species is indeed a noble one, he's not too concerned when it comes to the equally important issue of reducing greenhouse gases and slowing global warming.

Earlier this year, Huang defended his repeated attempts to buy massive tracts of Iceland, saying that his interests were purely financial.  His logic ran that (and we're not making this up) that if the ice caps melt because of continued global warming in the near future, then property prices in Iceland will go through the roof:

Many people think Iceland is very remote but if you think about it in the long run, in 10 years... If the ice caps melt in the North Pole, then Iceland property will become very expensive because it's the only way that a lot of ships need to pass to go to Europe," Huang said on the sidelines of the China Entrepreneur Club's Annual Summit of Green Companies in Kunming, located in the country's southwestern Yunnan province.

The deal was ultimately blocked by the Icelandic government who were suspicious of the former government official and his plans to help Chinese world domination.

 

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Getting Paranoid in China

For some reason, a writer at the Telegraph has discovered that you need to be slightly paranoid in the world's second most monitored country.  As George Osbourne and Boris Johnson dance around with nublie Chinese women at the taxpayers expense, offer various visa concessions to make up for last years Dalai Lama gaffe, questions, shockingly, are being raised as to how safe sensitive British information will be in the new land of plenty.

Thankfully, as the blog post points out, there's little to worry about, because the Chinese don't read English real good.  Or as Benedict Brogan puts it, they aren't very adept at analysing the data once they get it.   

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Kempinski, Intercontinental, Ramada Implicated in Sex Worker Scandal

A BBC report has uncovered shocking evidence that despite prostitution being illegal, hookers are "hiding in plain sight".

Ok, so it's not really that shocking, but the naming of The Kempinski hotel in the investigation is sure to pique more interest in what exactly goes on at the 500rmb per person Christmas Brunch that is held there every year.  While little effort was made to hide the operation, situated in the basement of the hotel, the pimp journalist John Sudworth talked to said that he was unable to offer an official receipt for the sex services that women (presumably) in his employ were offering.  On hotel even suggested that it would be possible to settle the bill for the hired women at the reception desk.  Why exactly you'd want a receipt proving that you hired a hooker for the night is beyond us.

A BBC colleague, posing as a personal assistant, told the spa receptionists that she was setting up a business meeting for potential clients who expected sex to be available in the chosen venue.

In around 7% of those she spoke to, in cities as far afield as Nanjing and Qingdao on China's east coast and the inland cities of Xian and Zhengzhou, we discovered that prostitution is very easy to arrange.

Other high end hotels are implicated, with a photo from the Ramada, which claims to be a "family oriented hotel" in Zhengzhou showing that sex workers are available for hire at the very reasonable rate (so we're told...) of 800rmb.  Unsurprisingly, both hotels have strenuously denied the allegations.

Zhao Huimin Shock Announcement

Full of Hot PM2.5

Worried that attending the APEC Summit in Beijing next year would warrant the use of face masks and Hazmat suits, Zhao Huimin was grilled over the plans to curb air pollution in the city at the end of this year's meet up.  Under pressure to clean up the air ahead of the 2014 summit, Zhao put his foot right in it when he suggested in a TV interview that Chinese cooking might be responsible for pushing levels of PM2.5 up to levels far too dangerous to even look at, let alone breathe.

Not wanting to give away how much money is being apportioned to the project to reduce air pollution, Zhao simply said that more money was being spent than during the Olympics (a mere five years ago).  Confident that Beijing's more "mature" guidelines concerning air pollution would be in place by 2014, a brief glance over Zhao's career suggests that he might not be the best person for the job.

Last summer, Zhao was the guest of honor at the much ballyhooed Foreign Language Festival, were plans were announced to remove signs and menus written in Chinglish in a an effort to make Beijing at least look like "a more international city".  A year later, not much has changed, despite Zhao's office publishing "local standards for English translation of public signs, menus, organization names and official positions".

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