Who identifies self with the Five-star Red Flag?

by Wan Zhi

August 26, 2008

In its editorial on 25th of Augusty, one editor of Swedish Daily wrote that the just finished Beijing Olympic Games 2008 would be remembered for its plenty of symbols for showing a ”modern” China. It is true that symbols are the most representatives of cultures, and one culture is simply a collection of symbols, as this is almost a consensus for modern cultural semiotics and cultural studies. Therefore, it would be significant to discuss about one of the most important symbols at this Olympic Games, that is, the Five-star Red Flag, the Chinese national flag, and find out the meanings this symbol conveys.

This Five-star Red Flag was stipulated as China’s national flag in 1949 when the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) took the power in the mainland China and established People’s Republic of China, and at the same time abolished the national flag of the Republic of China which was founded by Sun Yatsen in 1911, and that is also the flag that the government in Taiwan still uses today. This Five-star Red Flag has become the official symbol for China ever since then. At this Olympic Games, except that both at the opening and at the closing there was the Five-star Red Flag raising ceremony, each time when Chinese sportman or women got a medal, there would be one Five-star Red Flag raising, so that 100 medals China got this time would mean 100 times of this Five-star Red Flag raisings. We would certainly not forget that hundred thousands of the Five-star Red Flags that audience waved, and same symboles at people and Chinese sportmen and women’s cloth and uniforms, and even painted at their cheeks. Before the Olympic Games started, the Olympic Fire relay all over the world caused some conflicts, in Paris, in London, in Los Angelus, etc. Many oversea Chinese students and young or old people, who were usually very insensitive in politics, suddenly appeared in the streets to demonstrate their anger against West media and defend the Beijing Olympic Games, and we could then see thousands of such Five-star Red Flags appearing in the main streets where the Olympic Fire went. This scene really suprised many local people. Now the whole world also know that the lovely girl who ”sang” at the opening ceremony was actually a fake. But I am sure that not so many foreigners would know what she was ”singing”. However, almost all Chinese knows, because this is one song all Chinese children learnt and learn and will learn from schools. I can remember the text clearly because I did sing it hundred of times when I lived in China. The title is ”Praising My Motherland”, and the first sentence is ” The Five-star Red Flag is fluttering in the wind….”

What is the meaning of this Five-star Red Flag which has become a symbol of China? What is there a big star surrounded by four small stars? Why does it have a red background? I guess that not many foreigners know about these, but all Chinese know because answers to these questions are included in the political education that all Chinese must receive already from their childhood, and often included in the examinations for students to enter middle schools, high schools and universities. Chinese schools still have this Five-star Red Flag raising cerenomony every school day morning. All students know that this big star represents the Chinese Communist Party, and the four small stars around represents different social classes. Each little star should have one angel pointing to the big star as to show their loyalty. And the red colour, as for all communist parties in the world, symbolizes the violent and bloody revolution. Therefore, briefly, we can say that this Five-star Red Flag is a symbol for the One-Party dictatorship in China, a symbol to show how the Communist Party took the power via violence and bloody measures. It is a symbol for evil!

So, when I see thousands of Chinese people still wave this flag, and felt touched to tear when they listened to the girl to sing ”Praising My Motherland”, and they have no idea with what kind of evil flag they are identifying their national identity, and have no consciounsness that they have been ”brain-washed” or politically castrated already from their childhoon, I am really shocked. It reminds me of the fanatical scene during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s in China that millions of the so-called Red Guards waving the Mao’s Little Red Books. It also reminds me of the fanatical scene in Nazi’s Germany in the 1930s that thousands of young Nazis waving their 卐 flags. It is really a typicla scene to show how dictators can mobilize the naive people with their symbols!

Who can imagine today that a 卐 flag will be raised when a German sportsman gets an Olympic medal, or an old Soviet Union’s Red Star Flag will be raised when a Russian athlete wins any international game? Even in Europé which is famous for freedom of expression, to show a 卐 flag is regarded as criminal in many countries and will be legally punished.

I am sure that one day, soon or later, the dictatorship in China will collaps, as all dictatorships in the world did. The Five-star Red Flag as a symbol for One-Party dictatorship and violent and bloody revolution will be abolished by Chinese people then, just like what happened in Nazi or Soviet Union. These states all had held their Olympic Games, and all had a powerful and prosperous period, and had had their people to wave their flags, but they could not avoid their no good end.

Therefore, I really want to tell my fellow countrymen and women, if you do love our Motherland, and identify yourself with real Chinese national identity, and you do not want to have your future children feeling shamed, stop watving this Five-star Red Flag!

The Crackdown to Come

By Willy Lam

22 August 2008


Not only have the Olympics failed to act as a catalyst for political
liberalization in China, but the regime's pre-Olympics security buildup
looks set to enable the government to crack down as hard as ever on dissent
after the Games are over. In line with the time-honored Chinese tradition
of "taking revenge after the autumn harvest," police and military
authorities are planning major reprisals against a host of troublemakers.

Punitive action has begun even before the athletes and the estimated
400,000 foreign tourists leave town. Remember the "protest zones" that
Beijing authorities set up in three local parks as testimony of the
regime's "new openness"? According to international human rights watchdogs,
several activists who have applied to hold protests have been harassed and
detained. They include two Beijing petitioners, Wu Dianyuan and Wang
Xiuying, who were last week sentenced to a one-year term of "re-education
through labor." Mr. Wu and Ms. Wang's crime: repeatedly petitioning the
authorities for having been wrongfully evicted from their Beijing homes
seven years ago.

Indeed, a good number of the strategies and institutions put into place to
ensure a fail-safe Olympics are here to stay.
Since disturbances hit Tibet and four neighboring provinces in March, the
leadership under President Hu Jintao has boosted the powers of the People's
Liberation Army, the People's Armed Police, the regular police and the
judicial apparatus in combating destabilizing forces. As a key element of
the revival of Chairman Mao Zedong's "people's warfare," Beijing and a
number of other cities have revived the vigilante and spying functions of
neighborhood committees. Municipal administrations along the coast -- and
in the autonomous regions of Tibet and Xinjiang -- have recently earmarked
additional budget to maintain the "spying" functions of neighborhood
committees and similar vigilante outfits after the Olympics.

Moreover, the Politburo's Central Political and Legal Commission, China's
highest law-enforcement agency, has urged the courts and prosecutors to do
more in fulfilling the party's priority task of thwarting anti-Beijing
conspiracies and upholding sociopolitical stability.

That the courts will comply in this is evident from a just-released article
by the President of the Supreme People's Court, Wang Shengjun. Writing in
this week's edition of the official Seeking Truth journal, Mr. Wang said:
"We must pay more attention to maintaining state security and social
stability. . . We must boost our consciousness of [safeguarding] the power
of the regime . . . and fully develop our functions as a department for
[proletarian] dictatorship."

Recent vows made by senior judicial cadres about doing the bidding of the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) are indicative of the Hu leadership's
long-term game plan of using the judicial apparatus against the party's
foes. In numerous political campaigns waged by the CCP in recent decades,
prosecutors and judges have played a pivotal role in "expediting" the
incrimination of "counterrevolutionaries."

The CCP leadership also is beefing up its campaign against "splittist
elements," particularly in Xinjiang. In three separate attacks in western
Xinjiang between August 4 and 12, ruffians described by Chinese authorities
as "terrorists" killed 20 PAP officers and police.

In a televised conference earlier this week, a high-ranking member of the
Xinjiang CCP Committee, Zhu Hailun, indicated that the authorities would
step up their "military struggle" against the "three evil forces" of
separatism, terrorism and religious extremism. "We must use iron-fisted
methods to hit out at the disruptive activities [of separatists]," said Mr.
Zhu, who is responsible for law and order in the restive region. "We shall
take the initiative in attacking [the evil forces], hit them wherever they
show up, and launch pre-emptive strikes against them."


Mr. Zhu's stern rhetoric has left no doubt that Beijing has ruled out any
compromise with underground Uighur groups, many of which are merely seeking
autonomous rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution, not outright
independence. Instead, President Hu had in early summer ordered more
People's Liberation Army and People's Armed Police reinforcements into
Xinjiang and Tibet. These deployments have been confirmed by a Liberation
Army Daily story earlier this month, which said that crack units from the
Air Force of the Nanjing Military Region, which is responsible for the
Taiwan Strait, had taken part in recent war games in Xinjiang.

Apart from hitting out at dissidents, petitioners and secessionist
elements, the CCP leadership is buttressing its capacities to handle "mass
incidents," a code word for riots and disturbances staged by peasants and
workers who bear grudges against the authorities. The party journal
Fortnightly Chat pointed out last week that "a rash of mass incidents have
suddenly erupted, and they have rung the bell of alarm for [the viability
of] grassroots administrations."

Many of these incidents have to do with peasants whose land has been
grabbed by corrupt officials, or workers and migrant laborers who have been
deprived of their pensions and other rightful benefits. Confrontation
between the masses and police is tipped to rise owing to recent
difficulties in the economy. Some 67,000 medium-sized enterprises folded in
the first half of the year. And the livelihood of workers and farmers has
been rendered more difficult by inflation that is hovering between 6% and
7%.

Growing instability on various fronts has predisposed the Hu leadership
toward strengthening the police-state apparatus that has been put together
in the name of ensuring a trouble-free Olympics. Moreover, cadres in the
law-and-order establishment, who include senior officials in the Central
Political and Legal Commission as well as military, police and judicial
departments, have gained immense clout, not to mention much more funding,
since early this year.

These units have used their extra budgets to hire tens of thousands of new
staff, in addition to acquiring hardware that includes state-of-the-art
antiriot gear and hundreds of thousands of surveillance cameras and related
equipment. It is in the vested interests of this fast-expanding
law-and-order establishment to play up the imperative of eradicating
"enemies of the party," whether real or imagined.

All of which together bodes ill for the prospects of a post-Olympics thaw
for China's aggrieved residents and political dissidents.
---
Mr. Lam is a Hong Kong-based China scholar and author of "Chinese Politics
in the Hu Jintao Era" (M.E. Sharpe, 2006).
The Wall Street Journal Asia

Harsh Chinese Crackdown Coming in Xinjiang

by Willy Lam

15 August 2008

Once the troublesome Olympic Games are out of the way, steel will rain on China’s rebellious regions Chinese Communist Party and military authorities are set to launch an all-out, life-and-death struggle against underground, “splittist” elements in Xinjiang, whose three attacks against security personnel this month resulted in the death of 20 police and officers of the People’s Armed Police. Diplomatic sources in the Chinese capital said the enhanced military action would begin immediately after the Olympics end on the 24th, when the world’s attention will no longer be focused on China’s human rights record, including its shabby treatment of the Uighur minorities in the Xinjiang Autonomous Region. The political fortunes of President Hu Jintao’s faction are at stake. Since disturbances began to intensify in Tibet and Xinjiang early this year, Hu cronies running western China, including the Xinjiang Autonomous Region Party Secretary Wang Liqun and Tibet Party Secretary Zhang Qingli, have come in for criticism by other CCP factions for failing to do a good job in maintaining stability in the two flashpoint regions. In the Chinese tradition, cadres under fire for failing to maintain law and order will normally opt for hawkish and draconian measures so as to demonstrate their toughness as well as “political resoluteness.” Given that Wang’s and Zhang’s jobs are on the line, they would seem to have ample reason to use whatever firepower they could muster to obliterate bitter foes among the ethnic minorities. The call to arms was issued August 13 by Politburo member and Xinjiang region secretary Wang, Hu’s protégé. In language that recalls the excesses of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), Wang said in a meeting with local cadres and military officials that the CCP’s war against the “three evil forces” – or groups advocating terrorism, separatism and religious extremism – would be “a struggle unto death… that will remain long-term, severe and convoluted.” Wang also hinted that there was no room for compromise or for a non-military settlement of the differences between Beijing and these “enemy forces.” The Politburo stalwart told his comrades that military and police forces must “seize the initiative in attacking, hit them [the enemies] wherever they show up, and undertake pre-emptive strikes” so as to deny the three evil forces opportunities to re-group. Recent party documents on the “next stage of struggle” against the “three evil forces” have underscored the significance of a kind of responsibility system for PLA, PAP and ordinary police officers. This means that military and police officers must ensure that areas under their jurisdiction be free of underground separatist or extremist bases. And if trouble or quasi-terrorist activities occur in a certain city, town or county, responsible cadres or officers are to be fired or demoted immediately. As Wang said Wednesday: “Every official must man his command post well. Officials must have a high sense of responsibility toward safeguarding areas [under their jurisdiction].” Beijing sources knowledgeable about Beijing’s policies toward ethnic minorities – especially Uighurs – say that President Hu has totally abandoned the policy of flexibility and appeasement advocated by his patron, former party chief Hu Yaobang, in the 1980s. The sources have pinpointed two new thrusts in Beijing’s long-standing efforts to tame Xinjiang. Firstly, more troops – and hardware such as jet fighters – are to be moved to the Lanzhou Military Region (MR), which is responsible for western provinces including Gansu, Ningxia and Xinjiang. Reinforcements have come, for example, from divisions that were originally responsible for guarding the border with Russia and for a possible military confrontation with Taiwan. With relations across the Strait having been stabilized in the wake of the triumph of the Kuomintang at presidential polls last March, several units from the Nanjing Military Region (which is responsible for Taiwan) have been deployed in the Lanzhou MR for the time being. Secondly, Xinjiang public security departments will revive the surveillance and “spying” functions of neighborhood committees in various cities in the autonomous regions. XAR authorities have allocated additional funds to hire “part-time informants” that are attached to neighborhood committees. These informants, who include both Han Chinese and Uighurs, are tasked with telling police about suspicious-looking people who have newly moved into the neighborhood. At least as of now, President Hu is confident that iron-clad tactics against Uighur “rebels” would not lead to serious international repercussions. The US has in the past few years toned down criticism of Beijing’s XAR policy partly in return for China’s help in Washington’s global anti-terrorism gambit. And President George W Bush’s appearance at the opening ceremony of the Games has convinced Beijing that whatever it does in Xinjiang or Tibet will not lead to a deterioration of Sino-U.S. ties. Moreover, even if the PLA and PAP were to play hardball with “underground gangs” in the XAR, such actions would pale beside the recent incursion of Russian groups into Georgia. The Western world’s lukewarm response to the Georgian crisis reinforces the CCP leadership’s belief that it can get away with even the most repressive policies in Tibet and Xinjiang.

http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1386&Itemid=31

Ex-Official Slams Olympics

By Bao Tong

2008-08-06

A former top Communist Party official has slammed Beijing's hosting of the Olympic Games as being built on the back of corruption and human rights abuses. "In China, we produce miscarriages of justice and trumped-up charges like a high-intensity industrial zone," writes Bao Tong, who is under house arrest at his Beijing home.

RFA

Bao Tong at his Beijing home, April 2008.

Bao Tong, former top Communist Party aide to the ousted late Chinese premier, Zhao Ziyang, has been under house arrest at his Beijing home for nearly two decades after his boss's fall from power during the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Following are edited extracts from a three-part series of his essays about the Olympic Games in Beijing, broadcast on RFA's Mandarin service beginning Aug. 4:

It is very naive to take the number of gold medals won as an indicator of the rise of China. That sort of patriotism...has nothing to do with the Olympic spirit...There are subtle differences between China and other countries when it comes to the training and selection of athletes. Other countries use athletics as a way of training the body. China uses athletics to snatch prizes.

China has sponsored a top-down professionalized system, a totally segregated approach to athletic training. Non-Chinese may not understand the term "away from production." It has its roots in the Chinese Communist Party's experience of the 1927-37 Chinese civil war, when peasants who relied on the land for their existence took up arms as their revolutionary duty to fight for a share of it. In the process, they were torn away from their families, from the rest of society, and from normal economic activities. They were said to be taken "away from production" to fulfill this task.

China's athletes are chosen as young children...and taken away from their families, from their schools, and totally cut off from normal social activities. The door is closed, and they give up their entire youth and part of their childhoods for the sole aim of entering and winning competitions, an aim for which they are totally re-molded by the system.

Elitist training

China has the largest population of any country in the world, and therefore an unending supply of human resources with which to win glory and acclaim for country and Party. But it is a totally different thing from encouraging ordinary Chinese people to get fitter and healthier.

A gold medal is just a gold medal. It is not of the same order as the well-being of the people, or the fate of the nation. The former Soviet Union won countless gold medals. The gold medals are still there today, but where is the Soviet Union?

China's array of medals and prizes was produced out of the sweat, tears, and lives of generations of athletes and paralympians...You can't use the achievements of our young people to cover up or to dilute the mistakes of the country's leaders.

The Chinese Communist Party has used the Olympics as a way of suppressing all other political duties. It has put all its energy into this for the past decade, emptying out the last drop of strength. All political, economic, propaganda, and diplomatic effort has been channeled into the Olympics. The entire Party and nation has repeated the message about the importance of the Games time and again, an importance which is greater than that of the fight against corruption, disaster relief efforts, human rights, or the livelihood and welfare of ordinary Chinese.

Ordinary citizens pay the price

It is hard to see how the efforts of ordinary people will be repaid. Aside from the more obvious contributions of effort and money from those who have it, there are all those people who have had their land grabbed away from them, or whose homes have been forcibly demolished, or who have been forced to give up their...business. Those who have been forced to return to their hometown as part of the pre-Olympics "clean-up," or those who have been detained against their will. Those who have been forbidden to speak, forbidden to conduct interviews, forbidden to offer legal services, or forbidden from helping people stand up for their civil rights or property.

There is a fly in the ointment, and that lies in the fact that the Chinese government has refused to keep the promises it made to improve human rights and to allow greater press freedom when it applied to host the Games in the first place.

In the eight years since China applied to host the Games, with the continued suppression of human rights and continuing controls on the freedom of the press, those promises have turned into nothing but empty words. And an empty promise is very hard to keep.

Chinese people who have had their rights infringed know it. A lot of the international media know it. Communist Party and government officials know it too, in their heart of hearts. Who would have the gall to propose or second this motion, to talk the empty talk about "the best Olympic Games ever"?

Manufacturing injustice

The best at suppressing the news? Maybe. The best at trampling on people's rights? Perhaps. Even though the curtain has yet to rise on the Olympics, we can say with 100 percent certainty that we have lost all hope of being "the best."

There is one extremely good thing about a one-party system, and that is that it can achieve pretty much anything it wants to. That's why Deng Xiaoping said that China should never go the way of the West, because it was terribly troublesome, and that any attempt to get anything done petered out in argument. That's quite right. Who would have dared to argue with Deng or Mao? That's why Mao announced in 1976 that Deng was an enemy of the people, and why Deng announced in 1989 that Zhao Ziyang was the enemy.

History repeats itself, and the wheel comes full circle. Leaders at every level have to deal with dissenting opinion, and at every level they have the power to brand the other a public enemy. In China, we produce miscarriages of justice and trumped-up charges like a high-intensity industrial zone, rolling them off the conveyor belt at a rate no-one else can match.

We are so efficient at it: Why stop now? It is a task beloved of Chinese officials at every level of leadership. One thing they are particularly good at, for example, is allowing people they like to get rich first. All you need to get a bank loan in the blink of an eye is the favor of a local ranking official. In the blink of another eye, you can acquire a whole state enterprise for the token price of between three and five percent of its market value, which you can then transfer into your own private ownership.

One-party system

In the same blink of the eye, you can get access to a plot of land "approved" for your use, expel a large crowd of people who live on it and farm it, and begin a lucrative career as a property developer. Will anyone make a fuss? Well, that's easy to deal with. In the blink of an eye, anyone making a fuss will have lost their livelihood and received a warning from the authorities. Who will have the courage to publish such a negative news story? That would be revealing state and Party secrets, calling all sorts of trouble down on the heads of the journalist and even the whole newspaper.

In the case of a lawsuit being filed, the lawyer will either be warned off, obstructed at every turn, or have his license to practice taken away, or be convicted himself of a criminal offense. In the case of any mass unrest, the last resort is to send the security forces in to stamp out trouble. There is one of these "mass petitioning incidents" in China every five minutes, 80,000 a year, and they are all the inevitable by-product of a one-party system.

Under today's one-party system, we have a highly efficient system for an exponential increase in the gap between rich and poor, for corruption, state-sponsored robbery, oppression, and for the control of information. All these things fit together seamlessly. This is the human rights record and the state of press freedom against which it will be very hard to gain any improvements. This is the big, bad secret.

The efficiency of the one-party system can be applied in any number of ways. For example, to stop anything from happening that Party leaders do not like. China has been a People's Republic for 59 years now, but we haven't seen any progress in the direction of democracy in any of those years. The only reason China sent a delegate to the United Nations to sign the covenants on human rights back in October 1998 was because of the forthcoming application to host the 2008 Olympics.

Voting with their feet

As soon as the bid was successful, the thing was shoved into the shadows. The National People's Congress was never asked to ratify it. Putting on a show is indeed very efficient. Actually doing something is very inefficient. Thanks to China's one-party system, they really have been able to make a momentary difference to the air quality in Beijing. But as soon as the Games are over, who knows how many lifetimes ordinary Chinese residents will have to wait to get decent air to breathe again.

There is one clear barometer of how good a political system is. It's no good listening to what people say; mouths are very unreliable. You have to look at what the feet are doing. A good system will attract people. People in China may be living quite happily, and foreigners may make light of traveling a thousand miles to visit. But would they want to emigrate here? When they have seen the Olympics, seen the show, and had a chance to understand Chinese people a bit better, and to compare China to their own country, then what? I am certain that while they will say a lot of nice things about China, they are not going to start flooding in to live here. Whereas Chinese people would be leaving in their tens of thousands if the opportunity was there. That is my prediction. History will be the judge of whether I am right or not.

Original essay in Mandarin by Bao Tong. RFA Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

North Korea's hidden nuclear programs

By FANG JUE
Published: July 14, 2008 

New York, NY, United States, — The sixth round of six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear programs took place from July 10 to 12 in Beijing, with all parties agreeing that positive progress had been made. The six nations – China, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, Russia and the United States – issued a joint press communiqué at the end of the meeting, stating that the progress made in this second phase of implementing the Joint Statement agreed in September, 2005, would contribute to peace and stability in Northeast Asia.

The press communiqué carried little substantial content and there are several critical problems it did not address.

First of all, the purpose of this meeting was to discuss verification of North Korea's denuclearization. But it avoided the most significant issue – specifying what exactly is to be verified. North Korean's nuclear development involves both plutonium and uranium.

North Korea has generated several kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium and has produced several dirty bombs using plutonium. One such bomb was used for an underground nuclear test in October of 2006.

The verification activities discussed at the six-party meeting only referred to the quantity of plutonium produced, and the facilities where it has been produced. They did not include the dirty bombs, nor did they include uranium. In other words, they dealt with only half of North Korean's nuclear programs. Can such an approach to verification bring about North Korea's denuclearization?

Secondly, this meeting basically excluded the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, the main international organization responsible for overseeing and inspecting nuclear activities of all countries, from verifying North Korea's nuclear development. Instead, the press communiqué said only that the IAEA would be welcome to provide consultation and assistance in the task of verification, if necessary.

This makes the verification issue a matter of bargaining among a few countries, rather than an issue of objective international supervision and inspection. And it deprives the IAEA of its conventional role and responsibility. Without the participation of the IAEA, the verification process appears random, uncertain and lacking in international credibility.

Thirdly, the principle of consensus based on negotiations among the six counties was emphasized in the press communiqué. "The specific plans and implementation of the verification will be decided by the Working Group on Denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in line with the principle of consensus," it claimed. This principle implies that a decision on verification can only be achieved when all the six parties, including North Korea itself, agree.

North Korea, as a participant in the six-party talks, formerly refused to allow international verification of its programs. Now it appears it will allow verification of half its programs – those based on plutonium – and their production facilities. Yet it will likely continue to create new difficulties, ask for new rewards and offer new excuses for delaying the implementation of plans to verify its activities.

If the verification is to be expanded to other areas – the plutonium dirty bombs and the field of uranium – it will be hard to reach "consensus" with North Korea. Does a failure to reach consensus with North Korea mean it can maintain its current bombs and its uranium program in secret, so that it can possess dirty bombs made with uranium in the future?

In brief, it is inappropriate to adopt the principle of "consensus" in dealing with North Korea's denuclearization. On the contrary, it is obligatory to thoroughly examine all areas of nuclear development in North Korea in order to realize denuclearization. Without coercion, it will remain a country of nuclear weapons, of nuclear expansion, of blackmail for nuclear development and China's partner in nuclearization.

--

(Fang Jue is a political activist and freelance writer living in the United States. He was a former government official in China and worked at the Politics Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He was a visiting scholar at the Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research at Harvard University in 2003. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at www.ncn.org. ©Copyright Fang Jue.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Security/2008/07/14/north_koreas_hidden_nuclear_programs/5459/

Phony yuan endangers Beijing Olympics

By Zhu Jianguo

Published: July 03, 2008

Shenzhen, China — Less than 50 days before the Beijing Olympics open in August, an official from China's southeastern province of Guangdong announced that the People's Bank of China may be circulating counterfeit banknotes. This sent shockwaves around China, as what was supposed to be China's Olympic heyday was suddenly threatened by a possible scandal over fake money.

This could turn into a disaster to rival the previous ones that have struck China this year – the heavy snowstorm in southern China in January, the riots in Tibet in March, the train collision in Shandong in April, the earthquake in Sichuan in May and the rainstorms that flooded nine southern provinces in June.

Kuang Guojian, vice president of the Guangdong branch of the People's Bank of China, told the media on June 18 he could not guarantee that the bank would not circulate any counterfeit notes. The People's Bank of China oversees all financial institutions and banks in the country.

Most people tend to believe that fake money circulates only through black market channels, despite recent news reports that local bank officials are suspected of collusion in making and selling counterfeit notes. The Guangdong police department has announced that several officials are suspected of involvement in the production and circulation of nearly 600 million yuan (US$87 million) in fake notes. From time to time the media have reported that ATMs have issued fake 100-yuan bills; still, the public tends to view these as isolated illegal incidents related only to specific banks.

Kuang, a government official at the level of commissioner, explained that if a customer discovered that a bank had issued counterfeit notes he or she could "simply go to the counter to ask for genuine money instead." The bank seemed to be justifying the circulation of fake notes as a legitimate error, rather than offering to compensate the customers or even apologize to them.

Kuang said no bank would intentionally circulate counterfeit money. If a bank were found to be intentionally involved in counterfeiting, there would be severe punishment, he added. Yet he asked the public to be on the alert for counterfeit bills.

The bank official not only tried to shift responsibility for checking banknotes onto the customers, but also blamed criminals for mixing fake notes with real ones in the banks' ATM machines. "The machines are not without risk," he admitted.

In light of the corruption of many bank presidents and personnel, many of whom are currently serving time in jail, Kuang's confidence in the bank is not very persuasive.

It's not easy to determine if Kuang's statements – exonerating the bank from blame in illegally circulating fake money and shifting the responsibility onto others – were his own invention or whether they were authorized by a higher authority. Certainly Kuang did not receive any censure from higher authorities after making these statements.

The provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Chinese Communist Party long ago announced that it was the duty of Party members to diligently fight against the counterfeiting of money. Now that Kuang has dared to legitimize the banks' crime in circulating phony money, doesn't his action make the regulation a fake too?

Meanwhile, it is odd that the Chinese government has dedicated itself to fighting the counterfeiting of ordinary products and services throughout the years, yet it cannot guarantee the authenticity of the state currency, the most critical commodity in the country, circulated by state banks.

If fake yuan can appear in banks all over China without arousing serious concerns, can the guests and athletes coming from all over the world be at ease during their visits to Beijing during the Olympics next month? As for Chinese citizens, they may all be busy checking their banknotes, leaving no time to applaud the opening of the Games.

--

(Zhu Jianguo is a freelance writer and an independent researcher on "pseudo modernization," as well as a former journalist and editor. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese; the original can be found at www.chinaeweekly.com ©Copyright Zhu Jianguo)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Economics/2008/07/03/phony_yuan_endangers_beijing_olympics/9844/

Ethnic discrimination in China

By William Schue

July 10, 2008

 

Beijing, China ― The date, June 28, on which a riot occurred in the county of Wengan in southwestern China appeared to have a mysterious connection with the date, March 14, on which riots broke out in the city of Lhasa in Tibet. In Chinese, where months are expressed as numbers, the former is exactly twice the latter. There were many similarities between the two events as well.

For many Chinese, who are sensitive to numbers and the invisible arrangements of destiny, this was more than a simple coincidence.

Both incidents involved group violence in which ordinary citizens fought against armed police or soldiers. And in both cases, the authorities adopted the same official line, accusing the common people of initiating the violence.

There were also critical differences between the two incidents in the minds of the Chinese public, however. Lhasa is a famous city while Wengan is an unknown county. They also involved people of different races, therefore the attitudes of Chinese citizens toward these two riots were different.

It is difficult for state-controlled media to report real public opinion, as they are only tools to propagate the official viewpoint. Chinese netizens' postings on major online forums like Tianya and Cat898.com, however, reveal public opinion to some degree. An examination of online remarks shows that a majority of netizens supported the government and objected to the riots by ethnic Tibetans, while many supported the riot by ethnic Chinese in Wengan who were fighting against the government.

The Wengan riot was only 105 days after the Lhasa riot. Both locations are remote from well-developed areas, so the "truth" of what happened in both cases was subject to blocks and manipulation by the authorities.

Under these very similar circumstances, why did netizens, lacking firsthand information, hold completely opposite attitudes toward these two incidents where common people became involved in acts of violence? If the Tibetan people were blamed for the outbreak of violence, why were the people of Wengan, in the same situation, afforded understanding and sympathy?

If sympathy for the weak inspired the majority of Chinese to stand with the people of Wengan, why did so few people show similar sympathy for the powerless Tibetans? Why did the majority groundlessly consider the people of Wengan innocent while assuming the Tibetans were guilty?

The netizens' attitudes demonstrate a double standard in view of the facts. Ethnicity matters, and is one of the factors that influence general public attitudes.

The majority of Chinese netizens belong to the "great Han people," including the original Han Chinese ethnic group and other ethnic groups that have been assimilated by the Han.

The ideology of political power based in the central plains of China and nationalism have impacted the "great Han people." These factors have shaped the thinking of the Han people and have also alienated China's other races. In the eyes of many Han people, the ethnic minorities in their conventional costumes are viewed as having violent tendencies, uncivilized ways and uneducated minds.

Hence, the Han rulers were strengthened in their ancient idea � "Let those who comply with me thrive and those who resist me perish."

In China, the people who are most discriminated against are not those from small minority groups, but those whose populations are sizeable, who inhabit remote regions and hold unique religious beliefs, and are therefore unable to easily assimilate to the Han lifestyle, customs, racial characteristics and culture. These include the Tibetans, the Hui and the Uygurs. Their obviously different racial characteristics are an everlasting pain for the "great Han people," who insist on being extremely conceited.

The Tibetan people in Lhasa were fighting against oppression by authorities who represent the interests of the great Han people. Their actions in the March 14 riot were therefore demonized by the Han people. In the June 28 incident, however, when citizens of the "great Han people" conflicted with the Han authorities in their appeal for justice, this was viewed as an internal conflict, so they could win sympathy and support.

Although it is true that some individuals among the ethnic minorities engage in lawless conduct such as stealing, beating people, and so on, such tales are often magnified so the image of the whole group is tainted. On the other hand, news media often avoid covering social issues involving ethnic minorities for fear of arousing and expanding ethnic conflicts. That unfortunately leads to ethnic issues remaining underground.

Ignorance of real information leads to the spread of rumors, and unfounded rumors about China's ethnic minorities influence and prejudice the views of the Han people. Consequently, ethnic discrimination in China cannot be freely discussed.

The unwillingness of political authorities and the news media to face this issue means the entire Chinese people neglect the issue of ethnic discrimination. Although discrimination rarely surfaces among those working within the state system, and few people would consider themselves prejudiced, these attitudes are hidden in the minds of many great Han people. As soon as an incident like the March 14 riot in Lhasa occurs, this tendency is stirred up.

--

(William Schue is a freelance writer with a background in law and journalism. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese; the original can be found at www.ncn.org and williamschue007cn.spaces.live.com. ©Copyright William Schue.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Society_Culture/2008/07/10/ethnic_discrimination_in_china/8663/

The Promise of Lady Liberty

Fengshi Yang

Opening remarks
The 19th anniversary of “Tiananmen, June 4th” Memorial Concert

6/1/2008

What is any moment without its promise, without its dreams, without its hope for the future? That moment is empty.

Please know, that such an empty moment does not exist, because every moment contains promise. Just like an acorn seed promises the oak tree; a baby promises an adult; and the student promises a mind that can think thoughts for the greater good of his people. But, not every promise becomes reality.

Nineteen years ago, Lady Liberty lived in Tiannamen Square. The moment was filled with promise and dreams and hopes for democracy in China. It was an astonishing moment in world history. The promise was great. But, it was never allowed to take root. So, China lost an opportunity; we lost courageous young souls who dared to dream of something miraculous for their country; and the world lost a chance to have the most populated country in the world turn into a democratic republic. We must remember this moment. We must honor our dead... we must honor our survivors. And we must keep vigil with the dream, with the promise of that moment.

All change requires loss. But, staying the same takes it toll, also. Why was China like Odysseus shipwrecked in a stormy sea... clinging ferociously to the shattered keel of his original ship...? What could have been our present moment now had China then the courage to try democratic freedoms? We will never know the answer to that question. But, we must hold on to our memories of the promise of that moment 19 years ago. We must remember those who gave their lives for the possibility of change, especially since that change has not yet happened.

Democracy is hard work. Freedom means the possibility of mistakes, the chance to agree to disagree and the opportunity to try again. Let us remember the promise from 19 years ago when Lady Liberty stood in Tiannamen. May she live again for the sake of our people, our troubled nation, and for the sake of world peace.

The world can tremble in many ways.
Whether it is the ideological challenge to the status quo
Or the literal quaking of the ground upon which one stands.

19 years ago
the world trembled
and then, held its breath
as the promise of the moment failed.

19 days ago
the land rumbled,
buildings tumbled
and the world trembled at the destruction and loss of life.

All must begin anew
for we are never the same after such an event.

We pray for those victims.

We pray for those in Sichuan province
who have no choice
but to exist in this strange new reality.

And we stand here today
keeping vigil with them
in our hearts and prayers.

We pause
for a moment of silence
as we light our candles
out of respect for the magnificent mystery of life.

Let us remember all those who suffer.

the TianAnMen Mothers Professor Ding ZiLin's Letter on June 4

The South Korea Chapter of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition
Commemorates June 4; Representative of the TianAnMen Mothers Professor
Ding ZiLin's Letter on June 4


The South Korea Chapter of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition
Commemorates June 4

On the evening of June 3, 2008, despite heavy rain, members of the
South Korea Chapter of the Overseas Chinese Democracy Coalition held
a "Commemorating June 4 Candlelight Vigil" in the Chinese church in
Seoul. During the commemoration, members held a 3-minute silence in
mourning of the 6.4 victims and the victims of the WenChuan
earthquake, in front of a display of candles made in the sign of "6.4."

Chapter member ZHENG Cai gave a speech titled "We Shall Remember 6.4
Forever"; Chapter committee member WU Jiang read a"6.4 Eulogy"; Deputy
Director DENG YunBi read the May 30, 2008 letter from representative
of the TianAnMen Mothers Professor Ding ZiLin (printed below);
Director WU ZhenRong delivered his speech titled "Why do we
commemorate June 4 every year?" The memorial service lasted for 50
minutes.

This is the 6th consecutive year of the 6.4 memorial service for the
South Korea Chapter since 2003, as well as their continuation of
democracy advocating work within the Chinese population in South Korea.
__ __ __

Letter from Professor Ding ZiLing

My dear compatriots and friends,

On this 19th anniversary I would like to thank you, on behalf of the
TianAnMen Mothers group, for your consecutive efforts in holding
annual memorial services at the same place for the past 19 years to
commemorate the deaths of the June 4 massacre in 1989. In the passing
of time, such gathering is gaining significance not only as respect
for the dead but also as hope for the future. It is not only a
demonstration of moral courage but also an expression for a consistent
conviction. I would like to thank you all for this, again on behalf of
every member of the TianAnMen Mothers.

We just went through an earthquake of extraordinary scale in our own
country where grief for the dead was universal. Such a calamity has
left on our land tens of thousands of dead again. What we find
difficult to address is that so many children were among the dead. All
those fresh lives were buried under the fallen structures. Mothers
wept for the loss of their children. All these tragedies bring out
sympathy from every kind-hearted person.

As mothers who lost their children 19 years ago, we know the pain at
the time of the calamity and from the death that came with the
calamity. Our hearts are now very fragile and are not so strong any
longer when the bad news of losing lives comes in bunches. Yesterday,
China had TianAnMen mothers. Today a new group of Sichuan Mothers came
into being. Is this the destiny of the Chinese race?

The natural calamity is horrible since it is so difficult to predict.
But the human made horrors are even more horrible since they should
not have happened. Hundreds and thousands of young men and women, and
innocent civilians died from the bullets of the "Republic's army" and
the wheels of the tanks. That was criminal. Those children of today's
tragedy could have survived. They died from the natural calamity and
human made calamity --- the tofu-type building projects.

Most of the numerous abnormal deaths are due to a sick system and a
wrong concept.


The Chinese political system protects nothing except power and money.
What are lacking in the mind of Chinese race are the respect and
concern for life, and the respect and fear of death. For thousands of
years, especially in the past more than half-century, life and human
value are not respected and are either seen as trivial as a piece of
grass or as in the hand of fate in the minds of people of all status.
People cannot forget Deng Xiaoping's tough expression of exchanging
twenty years of stability for two hundred thousand lives. After 19
years, people will still remember the cold blooded order of "positive
media coverage" while so many have died in the earthquake.

Systems and concepts are difficult to change. But the change is
inevitable. What June 4 has brought about proves that change is a
must. This earthquake proves again that the change is a must.

Today we get together to appeal to our compatriots for enhancing the
respect for life and concern and reminding people of the fear for
death. We appeal so that our system can change its nature according to
the universal value of mankind. Only with this universal value can we
have the security for every life and we will be free of the fear for
the immediate death, of ourselves or our loved ones.

Thanks you very much.

Ding Zilin
May 30, 2008

------------------------------

This is a message from WeiJingSheng.org

The International News Media Should not Let Itself to be Misled by the Chinese Government

By Ciping HUANG

A few hours after the Sichuan earthquake in China, like most people, my attention was focused on the tragedy and lost of human lives. In particular, I have six old college classmates working in the nuclear facilities in MianYang, the city with highest death casualty, and a new friend who has relatives that were buried in BeiChuan, the city suffered most in percentage. Luckily, as of today, I have learned that all the classmates were not hurt and 3 out of 4 relatives of my friend will survive.

In a function today while I was chatting with physics professors, the natural topic was about China's earthquake. When I commented on the deaths of innocent children of collapsed school buildings, an American atomic physics professor commented: "Our news media surely are concerned about all the pandas." As the conversation continued I talked about MianYang being an important city for the Chinese military industry, including both nuclear development (coded as Industrial Department 2 for Nuclear Industry) and space science (coded as Industrial Department 7 of equivalent to NASA). The professor was shocked that the news media did not give coverage on the issue.

This issue should not have been ignored, especially since currently two major threats are facing the quake survivors in that region.

One is the possible flooding caused by the collapse of the weakened dams of the nearly 500 reservoirs in the region. People like me have personally witnessed the suffering from a previous incident in 1975 when the largest dam disaster in the world happened. The collective collapses of several dozens of dams flooded more than 10,000 square kilometers and killed more than 26,000 people and made many more homeless. Till this day, I still remember vividly the doorsteps of my home flooded with these beggars with harrowed eyes and sobbing voice telling their stories to win some sympathy for food.

The other danger that has not been told officially but is already spreading is the potential of nuclear disaster from the stock piled nuclear weapons in the mountains and nuclear facilities nearby. As a matter of fact, when the Chinese government abruptly refused international humanitarian assistance to the region during the most crucial time of the first 3 days to save these fragile lives, there was already the rumor of areas being sealed with heavy security and people with military and bio defense gear walking in and out. The military industrial nature of MianYang should have been known by the international intelligence agencies such as CIA, so it is amazing that the international news media did not report this aspect, an aspect that surely counted in the decision making of the Chinese government.

Many welcome the fact that the news media was able to report on China's earthquake this time in comparison to just 2 months ago when Chinese government totally cut off communication and media access to demonstrations in Tibet. However, considering the outcome of the international outcries and pressure from that recent event, giving a failure grade for its Olympic torch rally P.R., it was wiser for the Chinese government to improve its strategy to allow limited and misleading reports. Why misleading? On international TV channels, you could see much footage of the army rescue that was directly copied from Chinese government's TV channel CCTV. Why limited? I have not seen any in-depth report noticing the profound meaning of the military industry in that region over the pandas.

I have always thought the free news media in the West was the most forefront warrior of democracy and freedom, as exhibited by the Watergate report. Yet, over the years especially recently I have grown concerned by the trend of news reports, which I wish to be more serious and in depth, rather than superficial and tabloid type. I have also see the power of money control and influence over the news media in recent years, a conclusion which is not difficult to reach when one compares the attitude and reporting by the news media and scholars between the former USSR and current China. In my opinion, reporting and decoding the hostile and destructive forces is just another way to contribute to transparency and peace.

I have noticed that the Chinese embassy officially asked the US State Department for detailed satellite photos of the region. Yet, the US State Department agreed to it today. One has to wonder why the Chinese spy and intelligence agencies, including their facility in MianYang, would not produce their own? Then what is the real purpose behind this request? Would the Chinese government ever admit to its people that their super satellite technology could not beat American's? The answer is no. It seems obvious that they wish to know what the US knows about the installations. If you recall that just a few days ago, Chinese president Hu Jintao took the opportunity of President Bush's phone call about the earthquake to be his opportunity to solve Chinese government's difficulty internationally, you could safely conclude that once again, the Chinese government puts its own interest above the lives and welfare of the Chinese people.

So here are some suggestions of mine to news media what they could investigate and report on in depth:

1. Why did most school buildings collapse but not most of the government buildings in this earthquake? How Chinese government's one-child policy deepens the tragedy in this disaster?

2. Why in many schools did the officials survive, but not the children? We could not forget the big fire in XinJiang's school auditorium just 13 years ago. When the fires started, the school called the students to wait to let the officials move out first, which resulted in more than three hundreds of children's deaths, but not the officials.

3. Why the military could not move in to the disaster area earlier and the real reason to refuse international assistance teams at the most crucial 72 hours.

4. Knowing they were on the earthquake fracture lines, were the students and citizens taught the basic surviving skills? Being close to the nuclear facility, were the residents nearby taught the basic protection in face of nuclear contamination? (The answer is: no.)

5. The true reason why the military parachutes were not dispatched in the first 3 days, despite the fact that the Chinese government boasted more than 10,000 all weather parachutes even in 1999.

6. Why a few days before the earth quake, the government's announcement had to ask people not to pass "earthquake rumors" when they observed unusual events that signed earthquakes such as massive migration of toads in hundreds thousands near the epicenter days earlier and a pond of 10,000 cubic meters all disappearing in a few hours (the official announcement was deleted from the website after earthquake happened)?

Finally, let me tell people why I wrote this article. Thirty years ago, I was lucky to go to college without going through high school. I was lucky enough to be the classmate of the brightest and smart prodigy children of China at the time, and I choose nuclear physics because it was the most competitive, a career that my role model Madam Currie had. However, after I got a job working in the Institute of Atomic Energy, an integral part of designing atomic bombs and nuclear weaponry, I not only discovered the horror of nuclear weapons, but also learnt the fact that the Chinese government was passing the nuclear technology to countries like Pakistan. I had to question the possible consequences of an irresponsible government that disregards human rights and human lives could do with these nuclear weapons. From that point on, my pride and determination to search the truth of nature turned into my conscience and responsibility for the human race and the rest of the earth.

(This article only represents the opinions of the author.)

----------------------------------------

This is a message from WeiJingSheng.org

Politics of healing in cross-strait ties

By WU JIAXIANG, WEIHAI, China

Published: May 13, 2008

Ma Ying-jeou’s honeymoon with the Chinese government may be over already, some critics say, even before he takes up his post as Taiwan’s leader on May 20. His popularity with the conservative deep-blue camp has also waned, owing to his appointment of Lai Shin-yuan to the Mainland Affairs Council. The controversial new chairwoman was a senior security advisor and a core player within the Taiwan Solidarity Union, a pro-independence political party under the leadership of former Taiwan leader Lee Teng-hui.

This analysis may not be correct, however.

In fact, Ma is not a groom in wedding attire. He is more of a doctor in a white coat. He is holding not a ring for a bride, but a stethoscope for a patient. What he wants is not a honeymoon but a period of convalescence from wounds caused by the struggles within the island, between the blue and green camps, and across the Taiwan Strait, between Taiwan and mainland China.

During the eight-year rule under the Democratic Progressive Party of the green camp, the manmade conflict between ethnic groups -- islanders versus mainlanders -- has been strengthened both on the island and across the strait. The Chinese people on both sides were badly hurt in this conflict.

Therefore, it is expected that the bluer Ma’s new Cabinet members are, the better the prospects for cross-strait relations. On the other hand, the more than 5 million voters in Taiwan who didn’t go for Ma do not need salt in their wounds, but a needle to sew them up. After a careful search in his doctor’s bag, Ma came up with the right needle -- Lai Shin-yuan, who is still seen as a pan-green supporter despite agreeing to support Ma’s policy on the 1992 Consensus -- an agreement signed that year by representatives from the mainland and Taiwan in which they agreed that there is only one China, with two interpretations of what “one China” means.

Lai originally emerged from the blue Kuomintang camp and served as a member of the International Affairs Committee of the Taipei city government from 1999-2000, when Ma was the city’s mayor. Before that she obtained her doctorate in Britain, worked as a journalist from 1978-1980 at the China Times under the Kuomintang’s control, and was employed by several international institutions, where she cultivated her knowledge of international affairs.

At that time it wasn’t Ma Ying-Jeou but Lee Teng-Hui who was the strongest magnet for the Kuomintang.

Lee wasn’t satisfied with acting as a step-son to former President Chiang Ching-kuo. He wanted to become the spiritual leader, or godfather, of Taiwan’s independence and democracy. Thus he started to turn politically green, split the Kuomintang from inside, and eventually supported the DPP of the green camp to take political power in 2000.

Lai was pulled by his magnetic attraction into the government under the DPP’s leadership since 2000, and took up a post as senior advisor to the “National Security Council,” mainly dealing with economic affairs. Later she left the Kuomintang, joined Lee’s new party and won a legislative seat in 2004.

But Lee turned out to be more of a pendulum than a magnet, vacillating back and forth, in terms of his political position. Lee was pro-blue, shifted to pro-green in 1999 and later turned blue again. In 1999 Lee became the godfather of Taiwan independence; in early 2007 he stated that he was never in favor of Taiwan independence, and that he was even thinking of visiting the mainland.

When the magnet moved back to the Kuomintang, the needles it had attracted also made the move. Dr. Ma is talking this needle that Lee passed on and turned it blue.

The first thing Ma must do with this needle is to sew up the relations within the Kuomintang that Lee split; that will show Ma’s big heart in embracing previous enemies. Secondly, Ma wants to be able to embrace the officials and civil servants of the previous government so that the hearts of the green camp can be pacified to some extent, but without getting on China’s nerves. After all, Lee clearly separated himself from the Taiwan independence forces; will Lai not do the same thing?

It looks like Ma will be busy with this healing work in the coming years -- dealing with the wounds between ethnic groups and across the strait and saving Taiwan’s falling economy. Luckily, the cure for all these ills does exist, and has been approved by the mainland. Ma’s No. 2 man, Vincent Siew, agreed with President Hu Jintao in mid-April to face reality, create the future, put arguments aside and look for win-win positions, while Hu agreed with senior Kuomintang member Lien Chan in late April to build mutual trust, put arguments aside, seek common ground while reserving differences and jointly create a win-win situation.

This is the politics of healing. If cross-strait relations can recover from their wounds, those within the island will be healed easily.

--

(Wu Jiaxiang is a senior researcher at the China Research Center for Public Policy of the China Society of Economic Reform. He is a renowned economic and political scholar and a former visiting scholar at Harvard University's Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research. His research areas include economics, domestic and international politics, business strategy, and Chinese traditional strategy and thought. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online; the original can be found at http://blog.sina.com.cn/wujiaxiang and www.ncn.org . ©Copyright Wu Jiaxiang.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/05/12/politics_of_healing_in_cross-strait_ties/9233/

Wild patriotism and nationalism in China

By ZHANG MING, BEIJING, China

Published: May 02, 2008

"Patriotism" seems to be a magic word for the Chinese. As long as a Chinese person claims to be a patriot, he immediately assumes the moral high ground. Whatever he or she says or does in the name of patriotism is perfectly justified.

If a person is alone, he or she generally will not behave completely without scruples; but if a group of self-appointed patriots gets together, they become suddenly very brave and quick to criticize others for not loving the country enough. They even divide citizens into two groups: patriots and traitors. The self-described "patriots" feel free to direct nasty remarks and abuse at those they have labeled "traitors."

Under normal circumstances, acts of violence such as beating people or throwing things at them are considered evil. Such actions may incite violent counterattacks, and eventually the police could become involved. Thus, whoever chooses this aggressive approach should consider the possible consequences.

However, in the name of patriotism, people readily engage in such violent behavior without restraint. For example, according to news reports, young people in the city of Kunming in the southwestern province of Yunnan recently organized a protest in front of the supermarket Carrefour, where they attacked people who went there to shop. The French supermarket chain is now under attack in China after Internet articles claimed that its owners or stockholders had provided the Dalai Lama's group with aid in order to support Tibet's independence.

Those self-proclaimed young patriots were shouting, scolding and throwing water bottles at the shoppers, and no one came out to stop them. What's worse, some "patriots" were yelling crazy things, saying they would kill those "traitors," peel off their skin and pull out their tendons, and even rape their wives and daughters.

It is not clear why this odd form of patriotism actually makes some Chinese behave very much like hooligans. Under the banner of patriotism, it appears they can do all manner of disgusting things without shame. Patriotism has become the shield behind which evil and ugliness can hide.

Surprisingly, ordinary people are just going about their lives without raising any complaints or doubts about all this, and without hitting back. Facing the frightening ferocity of these young revolutionaries, most people prefer to give in to avoid conflict rather than argue strongly in the name of justice. Even if some people feel unjustly accused, they will merely look dejected rather than speaking out with confidence.

The term "nationalism" in China is interpreted as loyalty to the nation, or absolute obedience to the state. Individual will and personal freedom are subjected to the will of the race and of the country. The notion of a supreme state is a powerful and engaging idea, and it is no exaggeration to say that almost everyone worships the state throughout the whole of China.

Not so long ago, China grouped its people into only four categories, apart from the military. These were state cadres, state laborers, state farmers and "fourth elements." The last group included landlords, rich peasants, counterrevolutionaries and "bad elements," or public enemies of the state. Among these, the cadres were the most arrogant, followed by the laborers and the farmers, who had no salary. At that time, laborers could easily lord it over those in the class below them by boasting about their salaries.

The power and influence of the state have not changed color in China, even though the times have changed. For example, the members of the national football team are called "state feet," the anchors of China Central TV are considered "state mouths," decent quality cultural relics or figures are referred to as "state treasures," and arts and crafts of so-so quality can still be called "state gifts" if given to foreign guests by officials. And the most desirable occupations for university graduates are state civil servants and employees at state-run enterprises.

In many Chinese hearts, "country" is spelled with a capital letter, while "citizen" is lower case. The citizen isn't essential and can become so small as to practically disappear. However, those who hold the state in highest esteem are in fact those citizens of the lowest status. When those people's interests are undermined by the strong power of the state, they will still praise the nation, as if it somehow gives them greater status.

The poor public does not realize that their tragic misfortune lies in the belief that the nation is supreme and the individual is worthless. In modern countries, even the most humble citizen can claim sovereignty and be an owner of the state, rather than its slave.

--

(Zhang Ming is a professor and supervisor of doctoral students at the School of International Relations of the People's University of China in Beijing. He has a PhD in politics, and is the former dean of the Politics Department at People's University. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org and zhangming.vip.bokee.com ©Copyright Zhang Ming.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Society_Culture/2008/05/02/wild_patriotism_and_nationalism_in_china/5245/

No such thing as 'anti-China forces'

By WU ZUOLAI, BEIJING, China

Published: April 04, 2008

Within China, many drumbeaters are stirring up anger against so-called "anti-China forces," referring to groups that are against the Chinese people, hold historical hostility toward the race, or have a conflict of interest with China or its people. If these voices are correct and such forces do exist, they will oppose the Chinese whenever they have a chance -- whether it's the Chinese people or the Chinese nation. They will always be anti-China, just as mice are always anti-cat.

Does this perception match the reality, however?

Actually, those judged "anti-China" because of their critical or even hostile attitudes -- including foreign political figures, media and some other groups -- are not against the Chinese people but against Beijing, a synonym for China's government.

Therefore, one should more precisely define these forces as critical of Beijing, or anti-Beijing. There are people who, in their innermost nature, have an aversion to Beijing's policies and systems. They may be overtly hostile, but it is not toward the Chinese leaders or the Chinese people. It is related to problems and troubles caused by the political system, which have harmed the Chinese people and are also factors contributing to instability in the world.

In the eyes of some angry Chinese youth, the conflict between China and the world can only be attributed to conflicts of interest. Does this imply that feelings of love and hate between people are merely a matter of shared or conflicting interests?

In fact, we are living in an era where values are a central issue; the core values of a nation determine its core competitiveness, its level of development and the degree of respect it holds in the world. Interests are just temporary and utilitarian while values are eternal and universal.

In addition, international criticism of Beijing results at least partly from Beijing's deficiencies in certain areas of performance. Likewise, the United States also faces international criticism for the same reason.

I would advise that Beijing improve its ability to listen to different opinions -- to correct any errors, to be more lighthearted if there are none, and to cultivate a spirit of forgiveness as well as an ability to correct its own mistakes in the face of criticism.

Because civil society is not strong in China, and the mainstream media are all controlled by the authorities, the government is not exposed to a variety of opinions. As a result, the authorities are not used to dealing with disagreements arising within local communities.

Now they are facing a range of opinion from the international community. Some view China's troubles with indifference and some suggest ineffective solutions. This is all inevitable. What the Chinese should do is simply listen to different voices, and set right what needs to be changed. After all, other people are only speaking about you, but no one regulates your words and deeds, nor does anyone resort to force.

In brief, there is no such thing as anti-Chinese forces in international society; there is only some criticism of the systems or problems of Beijing.

--

(Wu Zuolai is a scholar at the Chinese Art Research Institute in Beijing and an active commentator on current affairs. This article is translated and edited from the Chinese by UPI Asia Online. The original may be found at www.ncn.org and wublogger.blog.sohu.com. ©Copyright Wu Zuolai.)

http://www.upiasiaonline.com/Politics/2008/04/04/no_such_thing_as_anti-china_forces/1096/