Kevininfuckinpudong

Came across this letter by Ding Zilin, and figured I'd translate it for a different perspective on Gao Zhisheng's hunger strike. Don't necessarily agree with everything she says, but guess it's worth a read. Dear Honorable Gao Zhisheng, Even though we don’t know one another, I’ve still decided to go ahead and write this letter to you. I’ve already pondered this for quite a few days now. Every time that I read about your hunger strike to oppose government oppression and protect our civil rights, I can’t seem to escape having a type of ominous feeling. It is as if I have returned to those restless days sixteen years ago, when the sirens of ambulances carrying hunger striking students rushed from Tiananmen Square to hospitals all around the city, as the sharp cry of each siren strained my heart and soul. Eventually, the army entered the city of Beijing and slaughtered thousands of peaceful people with machine guns and tanks. Amongst the dead was my son, who was just 17 years old at the time. This event had such an impact on my life. If we are talking about loathing for this evil government, I can assure that my hatred is even a hundred times stronger than yours; if we are talking about loss of hope for freedom in China, I can assure you that my sense of despair at the current situation is even a hundred times stronger than yours; and if we are talking about sympathy for the weak and downtrodden victims of our society, I can assure you that I am no less sympathetic for their cause than you are. I recognize the brutality of this government clearly, and when I see you and others around you being persecuted, I empathize with you. This is because from the 1990’s to this day, I have had similar experiences. However, I must say that I would still encourage you not to go on with this hunger strike. Why? I am not sure what will come of this hunger strike: is a life-and-death struggle really what we are looking for at this moment? Have you considered this? What if another tragedy occurs like the massacre of 16 years ago? How could we explain another tragedy like that to the mothers and wives of those killed? Gao Zhisheng, you are a lawyer, an outstanding human rights lawyer. We certainly can’t say that there are many people like you in China today: in fact, there are not enough. I must say that I don’t believe that your hunger strike will help us reach the goal of protecting the people’s rights. However, I do believe that every human rights case needs to be resolved according to proper legal procedures. So it’s really hard for me to understand why you have abandoned your legal work and begun this political campaign. It seems like you have mixed your rights work together with politics. In my opinion, such politicization is not an ideal choice. This will create risks for people trying to protect our rights, risks that they will find hard to bear, while also moving you further and further away from the grassroots, from the people that really need your help. You have said that your hunger strike will fight the declining morale and disgrace of those fighting to protect our rights. But in my opinion, lawyers who dedicate all of their talent and intellect to their work, and really give all that they have to each of their cases, are the ones who are really worthy of our respect. They don’t always succeed, but every case they participate in contributes a little to the goal of building a society ruled by law. Fundamentally speaking, a lawyer-based drive to protect people’s rights can serve to awaken people’s knowledge of the law and their understanding of their rights, moving beyond all of the beautiful-sounding and grandiose concepts of the past. In the long term, there are no good prospects for a nation lacking respect for the law. Such a nation will never be able to escape the vicious cycle of order and disorder that characterized the history of imperial China. Gao Zhisheng, perhaps from your perspective, we mothers and wives who lost our relatives 16 years ago may seem totally useless: we have a profound sense of hatred for this government, yet we do not go out and actively seek any type of real revenge. It’s true, ever since members of our family were killed 16 years ago, we have not set a foot in Tiananmen Square, we have not organized the relatives of massacre victims to petition outside Zhongnanhai, and we have never encouraged anyone to go on a hunger strike. Our methods may seem ridiculous: every year we write one or two letters to the NPC, CPPCC, and the leaders of the state and government, requesting that the NPC review the issue of June Fourth in accordance with the law, and find a just resolution to the issue of June Fourth through consultations and dialogue. We have, accordingly, made three requests: 1) a reassessment of June Fourth; 2) reasonable compensation to June Fourth victims and their families; and 3) punishment in accordance with the law for those responsible for the 1989 Massacre. These requests will form the basis of any future dialogue with the government. However, eleven years have passed since our first letter, without a single reply from the government. So, the question is, should we continue? The answer to is “of course we should.” Because we believe that there will eventually be a day when the government will have to sit down and have a dialogue with us… Gao Zhisheng, China can’t take another mass movements. Even something like the democracy movement in Tiananmen in 1989 just can’t be repeated. You have said that abandoning this hunger strike would be equal to abandoning the dignity of mankind and the defense of truth; and equal to submitting to a despotic government. I think that this statement of yours was a little too extreme. There are others who say that if people can’t even do a hunger strike for 24 hours, then what good can they do? There are even those who say that, in this hunger strike, a moment of weakness can determine the difference between a real man and a dog. Such comments are, in my opinion, irresponsible. As I see it, freedom will be won inch by inch, and civil rights will be won in a step by step manner. The era of individual heroics, in which a new world is supposed to suddenly come crashing down from the sky, has already passed. The dynamics of our current era could be described as a chess match between different interest groups: the key is how you play. Everyone knows that the Party has begun to resemble a Mafia: there’s no denying this. But we need to replace their savagery with more civilized behavior, applying pressure until those in power have no choice but to obey the rules of human civilization. It will be hard, but we can’t stop trying. Gao Zhisheng, I have noted that people throughout the entire world have joined the ranks of your hunger strike. This must be very encouraging, and thanks should be given to them for their support. However, it’s clear that the true burden is not on their shoulders. They are unable to share any of the risk and possible outcome of all this, which, should any arise, we here in China would be unable to avoid. Here, I would like to take this opportunity to call on all of our friends overseas to care for Gao Zhisheng, and to not give him any more pressure. Give him some room to take a step back from what he has been doing, and to make some changes. We still have a long road ahead of us before we can reach a truly free China: there’s no express route to our final destination. Finally, I would like to say that everyone has the right to make their own choices in life, and I don’t want to try to force you to do anything. All that I said above is a recommendation, based on some concerns that I have. I hope you can give them some consideration. Ding Zilin

I haven't seen much about this in the press, but figured I'd carry some comments from Masaru Sato, former senior intelligence analyst at the Foreign Ministry, on supposed evidence that their encrypter in Shanghai was blackmailed and driven to suicide by Chinese agents: China's actions at the Shanghai Consulate General were nothing short of "dirty intelligence-gathering." If you look at the way in which intelligence agents from communist countries operated during the Cold War, you can see this kind of method was used toward hostile countries. In their counterespionage efforts, China and the former Soviet Union housed their communications specialists at their respective embassies. Whenever they left the compound, they were accompanied by a secret police escort. The Foreign Ministry, too, placed similar restrictions on its communications specialists, not allowing them to interact with the locals. In the past, there was also a rule calling for these specialists to spy on each other, looking for anything out of the ordinary. With the end of the Cold War, however, the world's intelligence agencies tended to avoid these "dirty" intelligence-gathering tactics. After learning of this incident in Shanghai, I found it surprising that China--or at least a local public security division branch--was still conducting activities banned by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which in the eyes of the Chinese government may be a "product of imperialists." China has remained adamant over its innocence, criticizing Japan--the clear victim in this instance--instead of apologizing over the matter. ...China has been acting in violation of not only international law, but also the rules of the international intelligence community. Japan would be able to win support from a great majority of countries, as far as the Shanghai incident is concerned. During the Cold War, a Japanese security official living in the Soviet bloc was expelled on suspicion of spying. Japan retaliated by kicking out a Soviet Union Embassy staff member. The comment Tokyo released at the time was to the effect that, although Japan felt the case highly regrettable, it nonetheless "hopes there will not be any adverse impact on Japanese-Soviet relations." The Soviet side also expressed its "wishes to see the incident resulting in no negative effect to the Soviet-Japanese relationship." Although the sentiments were hollow, both sides were aware of the need to bring these kinds of problems to an end.

I guess Samuel Jackson has stopped pitching his own beer and will be back on the big screen again. From the Yomiuri Daily: Japan's own "Afro Samurai" is set to hit the small screen in the United States as an animated series, to be followed up by a feature film starring Samuel L. Jackson. "Afro Samurai," written by 31-year-old Tokyo-based graphic designer Takashi "Bob" Okazaki, is the story of a black samurai fighting his enemies as he sets out to find the person who killed his father. With a sci-fi twist, the violent story is akin to a fusion of historical drama and hip-hop culture. When envisioning an animated series, Jackson, an African-American actor whose most recent credits include the role of a Jedi master in the "Star Wars" prequels, jumped on the project, signing on as both lead voice actor and coproducer. Following its debut in the United States, the anime will be reimported and broadcast in Japan, complete with subtitles. This is the first time Okazaki has illustrated a manga, though he has spent much of his time as an illustrator. According to the artist, the idea for a story centering on an afro-coiffed samurai was greatly influenced by his love for American movies and music. "The work has a really unique look, and it's even popular with some readers in Japan," Okazaki said. "I never would have thought a bunch of Americans would be reading my work."

Everything below was old stuff from my previous blog. From here on, everything will be new, on my new blog. Hope i can think of something to write soon.

Happy Army Day, Mutherfuckers! Seems like there were a few people that were not quite in the mood to celebrate yesterday. Who would have guessed, they got dragged away by our friends, the police? Wonder how those policemen's pensions will end up? Maybe one day they'll regret what they did... Hundreds of ex-servicemen marked yesterday's 78th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army by protesting outside a PLA office in Beijing.One witness said he saw many people being taken away by police. The petitioners, who were seeking action over economic woes caused by a lack of social security, gathered as PLA garrisons nationwide held Army Day ceremonies. Yesterday's incident followed a petition in April, when several thousand military veterans gathered at the same office, seeking better treatment from the state. Among those seeking more action in April was Korean war veteran Gan Guozhong, who died last month from a bone disease. Gan, who was unable to afford hospital treatment, spent the last six months of his life bedridden at home. Despite his war service and battlefield injuries, the government did not cover more than 60,000 yuan in medical expenses over the past decade, and his family continues to shoulder the debt. As a veteran, the government assigned him a job in a state-run company in Heilongjiang's Heihe city in 1976 but the company went bankrupt after Gan retired in 1993 and he lost his pension and medical benefits. The pension was resumed in 2000, but not the medical coverage. Gan petitioned state leaders for 10 years and they forwarded some of his letters to the local government. His son Gan Baolin, also a veteran, said no clear-cut policies existed to deal with cases like his father's. Gan Baolin said it was understandable that veterans would go to Beijing to petition. "They once fought for the nation, risking their necks," he said. "Now they are old and society has changed a lot, but they haven't got love or care from society or the government. My father left the world with regrets." If I had a dime for every time I heard some lame-ass "aiguo" patriotic BS here in China, I would be rich, and would not be sitting in my office now, having a cup of coffee and getting ready for a long, long day. But really, how much of this "aiguo" is really "aiguo?" I just read an article last night by Yu Jie criticizing the Chinese-American Nobel Prize Winner Chen Ning Yang, a man prone to "aiguo" outbursts that are usually less than helpful to the people of the country, and more helpful to the leaders. What Yu concluded was that Yang really had no grasp of what real life was like in China for regular people, as he is always a priveleged "foreign guest," and thus all that spews from his mouth is love of an imagined version of China that only exists for the select few. It's more a love of power and a false sense of face than a real love of one's country. Not to pick on this guy, but I wonder what he would have to say about this incident? Also last night, I watched the usual gratuitous Army Day musical celebrations (there were quite a few celebrations on a number of different TV channels). I couldn't help but laugh as they danced and sang songs like "Look at my Rocket!" and "Into the Trenches," etc. But it's also kind of sad, isn't it? Beneath this facade of development and patriotism lie the stories of people like Gan Guozhong, left to cover their own medical bills, while the officials whose power they fought for spend their money buying cars for their 2nd, 3rd, and 4th young girlfriends? Chinese Student FREAK OUT!!!! A not-so-popular defector whose full name I don't want to type out recently attended a conference on China in Melbourne. According to reports, a number of Mainland Chinese students showed up and made quite a scene, yelling, disrupting Chen's speech, calling him a traitor and threatening him. Some students demanded that he stop speaking English, and speak Chinese. I guess speaking English is traitorous, right? Remind me never to speak Chinese again on Chinese TV, only English for me! Anyway, their childish reactions really didn't go over very well. I don't know how to post pictures on this site, but from the pictures I saw, the students disrupting the speech looked like 2-year olds who just got their pacifiers taken away, while the rest of the audience looks completely aghast at their behavior. Here's a "dispatch" from the site: Chen's seminar at Melbourne University suffered some disruption and howling down last Friday. 　　The perpetrators appeared to be mainland Chinese students. I know we are taking them on purely for the cash, and I thought many Australian students might actually benefit from seeing up close how the Chinese system works on creating behaviour to stifle dissent, but do we really need to suffer these children of the appartchiks here in this country? Basically what we saw was a hate session. 　　While it's possible some geniunely wanted to hear CYL, and needed to also mouth the disruptions to keep in good with the party minders, the general behaviour of the mob hardly qualifies them for the status of students at a liberal university. A doctorate student at the university, Antonio Finnane, commented that "it's really very disturbing to see that these international students, even though they are studying in Australia, still have such a hostile view towards freedom of speech." Reading about this incident reminded me a lot of the anti-Japanese protests. Acting like an idiotic nutcase is simply not good press! In the anti-Japan govt-organized riots, the display of an immature and ugly sense of so-called patriotism shocked the world, as images of Chinese screaming and burning down Japanese restaurants hit the covers of newspapers around the world. Now with this defector, the lack of sympathy shown, and even a couple of incidents where threats were made on his life, continue to shock those of us in the world who have not had our minds clouded by the twisted party world-view. Many Chinese have criticized CYL for disgracing the Chinese people, but isn't this kind of irrational and immature behavior even more disgraceful? The sad thing is these people would probably be praised and consider themselves real patriots. But what's so heroic about closing your eyes to new ideas and yelling and threatening those who have a different point of view? Eventually the close-mindedness which passes for mainstream "culture" here is going to backfire. I mean, is this really the face that China and the Chinese people want to present to the world? Mature Diplomacy? An AP report that I saw in the Taipei Times has the following story, which clearly illustrates the maturity level of Chinese diplomacy: "Where frosty relations between China and Japan are concerned, the pen is mightier than the sword. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) appeared to make clear his continuing displeasure with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi when he ignored Koizumi's request to borrow his pen at a signing ceremony yesterday at the East Asia Summit in Malaysia. Wen had already refused to formally meet one-on-one with Koizumi at the summit amid a feud over the Japanese leader's visits to a shrine honoring war dead, including those executed for war crimes committed in China and elsewhere. As leaders of the newly inaugurated East Asia Summit were signing a declaration on the group's establishment, Koizumi, seated next to Wen, leaned over and asked to borrow his pen. Wen ignored him for several seconds until Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, smiling broadly, intervened to repeat the request. Wen then passed the pen to Koizumi with a smile, but the incident was widely noted amid an otherwise uneventful ceremony that concluded the 16-nation summit's formal business." Whew, that must have really been a "diu mianzi" moment when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had to play kindergarten teacher and request that Wen pass over his pen. I can't think of many other countries in the world whose leaders would act like this. I can imagine that quite a large section of the Chinese net population is slapping each other high fives: "Dude, that was so cool when you didn't lend him a pen! China's rising!" I mean, what's next? At the end of the ceremony, is Wen going to give Koizumi a giant wedgie? Is the People's Daily going to announce that "the Japanese people have cooties, and they are not invited to our birthday party." Gimme a fuckin break! Judging by this behavior, I think I should try to make my point in the simplest terms possible: naughty! What China really needs is a pitcher, instead of some belly-itcher. Case Study in True China Hating I have been called a “China-hater” a number of times in the past few years since I saw through the dishonesty of “People’s China.” However, using the examples of the beating of two different Chinese people, I plan to show that it is those who accuse me who are themselves “China-haters.” First, let’s discuss the case of Lu Banglie who was beaten by hired thugs on the way into the village of Taishi. The Guardian carried a story in which the reporter, obviously in a state of shock, had exaggerated the injuries inflicted upon Lu. Once such exaggeration was discovered, it was time for the usual so-called “China-lovers” to come out and discuss the Western media’s “bias.” “Oh look at the biased Western media, exaggerating the beating!” The Foreign Ministry then got a few punches in saying that foreign reporters often complain that China has no laws, but when there are laws, they are the first to break them (referring, I guess, to the law that you are not supposed to visit or report on Taishi? Quite a law! Seems that Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience is not required reading in the Chinese educational curriculum). The website Letters from China even described “cooking up a news story” as “almost equally as regrettable as” beating someone. Mocking the beating and those who witnessed it, various commenters have suggested that the reporter would have been better off as a creative writer. Thus, the issue of the beating is minimized, almost as if everyone forgot that Lu Banglie was in fact beaten, and that there is no open reporting on the situation in Taishi in no access. Which comes to the forefront here: hatred for the western media, or sympathy for their fellow man? Now, let’s contrast this with the case of Zhao Yan, a tourist from Tianjin beaten near Niagara Falls. Unlike Mr. Lu, her story got extensive coverage in all the Chinese government rags, both English and Chinese. Photos of her swollen face were on display on the Internet, in newspapers, in magazines, and of course, on the beloved 7 o’clock news. Coverage and comments on this issue continue to this day. On the surface, it seems that much more sympathy and care have been extended to Zhao Yan, beaten at the hands of the “American imperialists.” However, on closer inspection, the similarity between the treatment of the two cases becomes clear. One sees that no genuine sympathy or care is extended to the victims of either of the beatings by the Chinese media or Chinese commenters (and their foreign comrades). The victims of the beatings are transformed from people suffering pain into pawns in a political game attempting to justify the current Chinese regime. In the Lu case, the honest mistakes of someone traumatized after witnessing a beating are used as evidence of the bias of the Western “anti-China media.” In the case of Zhao Yan, her bruised face is pasted across every media possible, intimating that “this is how Chinese are treated in America.” And of course, who will stand up to the Western media and the Western powers and demand “China’s respect”? Of course, the saviors in the (xenophobic fascist) Party! Thus, we see the Foreign Ministry commenting on the Guardian’s “irresponsibility,” and we see Li Zhaoxing personally bringing up the Zhao Yan case with Colin Powell (covered very, very extensively in the Chinese-language media). It’s a story that has been told millions of times in the closed Chinese media, ever since the claim that the Tiananmen protests were "schemes by foreign anti-China forces." China will only gain respect from other countries in the world when its government and some of its citizens stop trying to gain political points off of others' suffering, and start to treat humans as humans, rather than political pawns fitting into a distorted “us against them” worldview. A beating is a beating, and it is wrong, no matter who inflicts it, and xenophobic “patriotism” cannot change that. I’d like to end with a story from Ding Zilin, whose son was murdered by the Chinese government in 1989. After appearing in interviews with the international media, she received a number of letters and phone calls from so-called “patriots” calling her “a tool of Western anti-China forces” and a modern-day “traitor to the Chinese people.” As Ding, a mother left unable to mourn the death of her only son, said in response to one letter, “to hell with your blind patriotism!” A life is a life, even if this life falls victim to the Chinese government, and the world will only be able to take China and its defenders seriously when they realize this self-evident truth. The real China-haters are those who brush aside the death or beating of their fellow citizens at the hand of their government, and treat the victims of such horrible occurrences as political pawns rather than human beings.

In college, I had to read this book called "Compassion Fatigue" about reports on tragedy. I think the Chinese must have the worst case ever of compassion fatigue. Just look at these comments, translations from Chinese chatboards! WARNING: Pretty damned offensive. 1. Great bombing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Repay blood debts with blood!!! That's right! I won't sympathize with the British. Invaders are not worthy of sympathy. Support Iraq, support Afghanistan, support all people living under oppression!!!! Would there be such bombings if the US and British governments hadn't openly invaded other countries?????? It's justified! 2. The US and Britain constitute the biggest terrorist forces in the world! They just invade other countries whenever they want! They violate the wills of other peoples whenever they please! When US and British bombs were falling on Afghanistan, Iraq and countless other invaded countries, did they ever think of how many innocent civilians were being killed? Maybe they thought about it! But killing citizens in other countries for their own political and economic benefit is something not worth mentioning, in their opinions, or even seen as a price that simply needs to be paid for their own good! We feel sorry for the death of innocent people, but there is simply no way to compare the number of civilians who have died in the US and England with the number of civilians slaughtered by these countries' armies! It's clear that the invasion of Iraq was wrong, but the people still support Blair. This shows that colonialism is still popular in Britian. This is the price the British have to pay for their hegemonic thinking! 3. The countries fighting the war on terror lack the knowledge of our ancient culture! All they know is oppressing people and controlling them through violence. Poor innocent civilians. The only other country sharing our knowledge is France! 4. Terrorism is the only way for the weak to fight back against the strong. No matter what reaons they may have, the US-British attack on the people of Iraq was wrong and constitutes blatant terrorism. All the weak can do in response is to bring you down with them. 5. Fuck, why didn't they bomb Japan?!!! I hope to see a Chinese branch of Al Qaeda deliver a masterpiece in Japan.... 6. In the Western world, the government is chosen by the people. Naturally, if the government does something wrong and angers someone else, the people will have to accept the outcome of its government's behavior. I have no sympathy for the English voters who died, only for those who didn't vote! It's good that everyone appreciates and supports China's foreign policy, making China the safest place in the entire world. Come on everybody, come to China! 7. The bellicose US and British people selected bellicose presidents! The two often act in collusion to pick on the weak. This should be avenged! The US and England are the real Axis of Evil! If it weren't for their invasions, no innocent civilians would have died in Afghanistan or Iraq or even the Balkans! So the US and Britain should reflect on this! 8. You reap what you sow! Yeah, pretty disturbing. I guess they got compassion fatigue from dwelling on the Nanjing Massacre for over 60 years. My only question is: where is the humanity here? Who are these people? It disgusts me, seriously. What kind of a people rejoices in the suffering of others? Oh yeah, people with a complete lack of confidence and chip on their shoulder. Sounds like some people I know. I'm really very concerned about the inability here in China to view fellow humans as people, and treat them as such. Other than that, I really don't know what to say. I think these quotes speak for themselves. They speak volumes. Final note: sorry for the haphazard translations. Busy today. posted Friday, 12 August 2005 THM made this comment, Gosh, I wonder how the poster of that first comment would feel if a Tibetan said the same thing about the Chinese? comment added :: 8th July 2005, 17:26 GMT+08 :: http://thehorsesmouth.blog-city.com Kevin made this comment, hehe, yeah, 'self-reflection' is definitely not a strong point here in china. anyway, didn't you hear? tibet is an inseparable part of the motherland. ummm... yeah... sure i was most amazed by: "I hope to see a Chinese branch of Al Qaeda deliver a masterpiece in Japan...." we all know all these comments passed through a censor, so the inclusion of that one blew me away, kind of... comment added :: 8th July 2005, 17:57 GMT+08 American man made this comment, Kevin,great site! It doesn't surprise me in the least.The Chinese are just scared little people.It just makes them feel strong to have others suffer.It is truly pathetic. I have had classes of 50-60 students laugh about 9/11.What can you say?Zero empathy.Is there a word in Chinese for empathy? comment added :: 8th July 2005, 20:39 GMT+08 A Chinese from HK made this comment, Are you sick or something? I feel sorry for you.... comment added :: 8th July 2005, 22:51 GMT+08 American man made this comment, Sick of living in a 5,000 year old toilet. comment added :: 8th July 2005, 23:23 GMT+08 Fabian made this comment, Near fifty years of Communist propaganda and "education" will do wonders for your faculties and critical reasoning. comment added :: 9th July 2005, 05:38 GMT+08 :: http://www.theswanker.com/macammacam Gordon made this comment, It's all Sun Yat-Sen's fault. (I will do a blog entry about this when I get my laptop back) comment added :: 9th July 2005, 21:25 GMT+08 :: http://thehorsesmouth.blog-city.com Nanjinger made this comment, If you read the Chinese History textbooks and listen to the Chinese media . You probably would understand why there are so many radical patriotic views in China. These views are the reflections of shortcomings of Chinese modern society. I will evenually hinder the progress of modern China. comment added :: 12th July 2005, 15:59 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, Nanjinger, thanks for visiting. Let me tell you, I love the city of Nanjing! I spend a lot of time there. Hell, even going there this weekend. So, em, rock on Nanjing! comment added :: 12th July 2005, 17:55 GMT+08 John-Ward Leighton made this comment, Compassion for whom? Does one have compassion for professional thugs who get killed or injured while breaking into you house to steal your goods. Or does one have compassion for the victims of the crime? Compassion fatigue indeed! JWL comment added :: 15th July 2005, 06:09 GMT+08 Michael made this comment, Compassion fatigue implies that there was some to bigin with. It's more like vacuum. 5000 years of this middle-kindom mind set plus 60 years CCP's distorted view of the world would do that to ya. Now, refresh me. What did these people say when Chinese embassy is bombed? It's truely a nation full of hypocrites. comment added :: 15th July 2005, 11:36 GMT+08 LEO FROM CANADA made this comment, A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE WEST NEVER KNEW THE HISTORY OF CHINA.... IN THAT SENSE, THEY COULD NOT UNDERSTAND THE CHINESE MIND......HOW MANY BRITISH, JAPANESE AND MAYBE AMERICAN KNOW THAT BRITAN, JAPAN AND SOME WESTERN NATION HAD DONE A LOT OF HARM AND PAIN TO THE CHINESE NATION IN THE PAST????????????????????????? NANJING MASSACRE BY THE JAPANESE, FEEDING THE CHINESE OF OPIUM BY THE BRITISH...AND WHATEVER THE WEST COULD LAID HAND ON THE GREAT CHINESE NATION.....WHERE WERE THE JUSTICE?????? WHAT YOU HAD DONE (HARM AND DESTRUCTTION) IN THE PAST WILL COME BACK TO GET YOU. BY THE WAY, I AM A FRENCH CANADIAN THAT HAD UNDERSTOOD THE REAL HISTORY OF THE WORLD. comment added :: 6th August 2005, 12:22 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, Intenet comments are highly unreliable in China. They include rumors, lies, extremism and fanatism. I suspect the motive of Kevin. You just see one side of the coin and you make all these peopel believe that is all. After all, please remerber the terrorists who hit London are British, not Chinese. Can I generalize that all the British people are sick, mad and insane? comment added :: 11th August 2005, 03:30 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, Most Chinese people are sympathetic with the British people and resent the terrorists. You can find a lot of articels, comments in support of the victims. I'm a Xinhua correspondent in Cairo, Egypt. Here I will show you some of the stories carried by Xinhua after the bombings. Pretty damed surprised, en? comment added :: 11th August 2005, 03:35 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, Xinhua stories on London blasts, a small party, Kevin. You want to see more? Blair says British people not be intimidated LONDON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair vows upon back to London from Scotland on Thursday that the " British people will not be intimidated and terrorists won't win." Speaking in Downing Street, the prime minister said: "It is a very sad day for the British people but we will hold true to the British way of life." Blair vows to bring blasts criminals to justice LONDON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Thursday the perpetrators of the deadliest peacetime attacks in Britain's history acted "in the name of Islam" and he vowed to "bring the responsible to justice". China resolutely condemns terrorist attacks in London BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhua) -- China on Thursday said it was shocked at the terrorist explosions in London and strongly condemned the terrorist attacks. Roundup: Latin American countries condemn terror attacks in London MEXICO CITY, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The Latin American countries on Thursday condemned the terrorist blasts in London, the deadliest terror attacks on British soil in recent years, and expressed their sympathies to the victims. Backgrounder: Major terror attacks in the world after Sept. 11, 2001 BEIJING, July 8 (Xinhua)-- A series of explosions hit London's transport system during rush hour Thursday morning, killing at least 37 and wounding 700 others, the deadliest terror attacks on British soil in recent years and yet another deadly incident since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. Chinese president strongly condemns London terrorist attacks GLENEAGLES, Scotland, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday strongly condemned the terrorist attacks against London, and offered his deep condolences to the victims and their families. Argentina condemns terrorist attack in London BUENOS AIRES, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The Argentine government condemned Thursday the terrorist attack in London. US condemns explosions in Britain WASHINGTON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The United States condemned on Thursday the explosions in London that killed some 40 people and expressed condolences to the victims of the explosions. London blasts bear hallmarks of al-Qaeda attacks, says UK's Straw LONDON July 7 (Xinhua) -- British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Thursday that the bombing in central London earlier in the day had "the hallmarks of an al-Qaeda related attack". Portugal condemns London blasts, reinforces security LISBON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Portugal's Prime Minister Jose Socrates condemned the terrorist attacks in London on Thursday. Portugal is prepared to cooperate with England "in any way it needs," Socrates said, adding that "democracy cannot give way to terrorism." Security tightened up across Europe LONDON, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Security is being tightened at airports and railway stations across Europe after explosions attacked London's transport system on Thursday. comment added :: 11th August 2005, 03:52 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, Actually, not suprised by the Xinhua reports, chinese reporter. There's nothing suprising about that. That's called humanity, and we're all human. What I was suprised by were the reactions that I saw in chat rooms, which I have translated here. There's no denying these things were said. There is also no denying that comments about democracy or human rights are deleted from such sited, while garbage and hatred such as that shown above remains. There's something wrong with such a system. comment added :: 11th August 2005, 10:26 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, Kevin, I'm not denying these nasty things being said, but what I want you and all the other readers to realize is that these nasty things are just a party of comments made in Internet rooms and many other things are also said. Not to memtion only a very small part of Chinese use Internet, 10 percent maybe. Please do not generalize what you have seen. I'm a journalist. I know pretty many explosions and disasters. Actually I rushed to Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt shortly after it was hit by terrorists on July 23 which killed some 90 people. I was shocked. I think every human being is shocked to see fellow human beings being massacred in such a brutal way. However, we have to do some soul-searching on our own part. Why there are these crazy guys? I have been in the Middle East for quite a long time. Frustration is prevailing and anti-American sentiments running high. I know many common Egyptians. They are farmers, teachers, pofessors and jounalists. You don't understand what impact the war in Afganistan and Iraq has had on their mind. They see killings, bombings and bloodshed on tv every day. Unlike Americans who blame everything bad in Iraq on terrorists, they blame Americans and the British people whose governments invaded Iraq. Yes, I appreciate your words when you mentioned humanity for so many times. Those crazy terrorists are once joyful young men. They are not born crazy terrorists. It takes a lot to drive a young and fresh man into a cold and insame terrorist. We, especially the people in the western countries, have to think about it. Blaming everything on a batch of bad guys does no good. As we Chinese say, lead by virtue not by force. I have to state, as a matter as fact, many Arabs strongly believe whenever there is war of Crusaders on the Arab soil, there shall be 9.11 and July 7. Americans say they want to liberate Iraq from tyranny, but they turn a large number of Arab young man into radicals. After all, Arabs do not invade the western countries. Your governments brought war and bloodshed to their doorstep and they just push it back to your lobby. Sorry to say that. As for democracy and human rights in China, that is a good topic. But we Chinese never expect foreigns to give us all these beautiful things. History tells a lot. As someone have mentioned above, the British once gave us opium and the Americans fought at least three wars with us, the Chinese Civil war, the korean war and the vietnam war. We have our own way of doing things and we believ we can do it right. Peace, prosperity, and democracy, all we want. We will have them one by one, but never believe some westerners can give them to us. Please do not lecture these things on us. It is American politicians who are scared by the emergence of a strong and stable China. We are confident and we really want to fairly compete. And, thousands of Chinese students and officials go to America every year to study. We learn, we adapt and we implement. Don't worry about democracy issues in China. We Chinese don't worry about that. What does concern us is whether the politicians in Washington and London are able to accept the fact that a little people living in the toilet for 5000 years are just as competent as they are, and in some cases, even better. comment added :: 11th August 2005, 16:22 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, Thanks for your well thought-out response. I understand where you're coming from, but I gotta say it sounded a bit too much like... well, like you work at Xinhua. Comments such as "Your governments brought war and bloodshed to their doorstep and they just push it back to your lobby. Sorry to say that" and "Don't worry about democracy issues in China. We Chinese don't worry about that." I would recommend that you spend more time learning more about the world while you are outside of China, because I don't think that statements such as these can be characterized as accurate or open-minded. For example, could you inform me of why 911 happened prior to Afghanistan? What was the reason for that? And after 911, was the US supposed to sit back and leave Afghanistan as it was? I believe we are in agreement on Iraq but that is certainly no reason for attacks on Western civilians. And as for your comment about Chinese not caring about human rights, well, sorry. That is just silly. Perhaps you should ask some of the people currently doing jail time for promoting human rights and freedom of the press. I know these are things that are not covered in Xinhua news, but they do exist. So maybe pick up some other newspapers and surf some other websites, such as my own, while you are in Egypt. I think you'll learn a lot. comment added :: 11th August 2005, 16:57 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, Firstly, Xinhua is not what you suppose it be. We follow every piece of news carried by AP, Reuters and AFP. Whatever you read, we read much more about it. Not to mention CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and any other major news sources and TV channels. Why we disagree each other? Think about it. As I have said, we Chinese have our own ways of doing things. There are dissidents, there are bloodshed on Tian'anmen Square, there are many many other injustices and grievances... Do you think we are silly enough not to realize these things do exist? We have different ways of looking at them. You can't build a democracy with more than one billion free citizens in one day, can you? I'm not speaking for the government because it is not the government I voted for. I speak for myself and many of my fellow countrymen share these views. We see democracies around the world, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Nigeria to Argentina. Unfortunately, they can hardly be good models for China. There are good models in terms of human rights and freedom, they are America, France and Germany, etc, and we are learning, as I have said, we will adapt and implement. Every Chinese knows an authoritarian system can not hold for ever, but the question is how to reform it. When I say "Don't worry", I mean we are working on it. Don't you lecture us and don't you give us hasty prescriptions. Every time when it comes to human rights and democracy, western people do appear to have some kind of moral superiority, they will mention lots of obvious facts in China that go against good standards of freedom and liberty. Anyway, thanks for saying those things again and again, but what we need is a solution. We are working on it. Secondly, about "Your governments brought war and bloodshed to their doorstep and they just push it back to your lobby. Sorry to say that" , I just repeated what I was told when I was in Egypt for so many years, and many people around the world somehow share the feelings. Humanity does not just mean western humanity. Do you know how many Palestinian innocent civilians were killed in the Palestinian -Israeli conflicts prior to 9.11? America has backed the most resented foe of the Arab people for more than fifty yeras, plowing countless seeds of hatred. Then do you know why there is al-Quida? You can read more and you will find Bin la-Dan was infuriated by the blind US backing of the Saudi royal family which bans women from driving and confines them to male domination. The corrupt and tyrannical Saudi government even let US foreces in on Saudi Arabia's soil, which hosts two of the most revered shrines in Islam. Everything has its source and origin, so does terrrorism. Buddha says where there is an origin, there is a result. If the western people do not deal with the origins of terrorism and work hard to win the hearts and minds of the Arab people, there will be a lot of tragical, bloody results. I'm in Egypt for many years and surely I'm learning things around me. But that does not mean I have to accept some fallible chain of reasoning, no matter it be on terrorism or on human rights. I understand American and British people are ill treated by the terrorists and we share your resentment and show our sympathy. One step further, as friends, we'd like you to know some bitter facts on terrorism. It is not because we want to hurt your feelings. It is because to know better these facts will help you deal with terrorism better. That's all. God bless America. God should also bless all innocent people in the world, no matter they are westerners or Arabs or Chinese. comment added :: 11th August 2005, 19:22 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, Now here's another misrepresentation: "Bin la-Dan was infuriated by the blind US backing of the Saudi royal family which bans women from driving and confines them to male domination." So he went to Afghanistan, where... women lived free? And as for "Don't you lecture us and don't you give us hasty prescriptions." I've got a solution. How about China stop arresting people who have done nothing more than express their own opinions? That wouldn't be that hard, would it? Jiang Yanyong, Zhang Lin, I am sure you have heard of these people. Just because you have a billion people doesn't mean they can be arrested for what they say! That's simply faulty reasoning. Please don't lecture me on conditions in China, because I've been here for a while and I know what it is like. "Xinhua is not what you suppose it be. We follow every piece of news carried by AP, Reuters and AFP. Whatever you read, we read much more about it. Not to mention CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and any other major news sources and TV channels." I think that the statement "Whatever you read, we read much more about it. " is revealing. There are plenty of things covered by BBC and CNN that are completely ignored by Xinhua, such as the recent death of former leader ZZY. Xinhua is extremely filtered, so please don't try to portray it as like CNN or BBC. You might have a lot of sources, but in the end, it is heavily filtered. "As I have said, we Chinese have our own ways of doing things." I think it would be better if the people could choose their own way, rather than having the government force them to accept what you call the "Chinese way." As someone who works in the media, I would hope that you could agree that freedom of speech would be helpful to China, and would not be difficult. This is my final point: if there was freedom of speech, people could post whatever they want on the Internet. But in the current confused situation, people can post the bullshit I translated above, but cannot write much simpler things criticizing Chinese society or the government. That is sad. I have had experiences on chat boards where people were saying "kill japanese, cut off their heads," and I said "really that's not a good idea, Japan has been very helpful to China," and it was my post that got deleted! Why not delete the post that says "kill japanese"? Only when there is freedom of speech will there be a chance to have a balanced dialogue and erase some of the irrational extremism illustrated above. I think we both agree on that. comment added :: 12th August 2005, 09:34 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, As I have said, the Chinese people don't need be reminded of some obvious facts again and again. People in India has freedom of speech, but they are also in deeper poverty; Pakistan once has democracy, but the voters chose a really bad government which was toppled by General Musharaf, a move welcomed by the people. The list can go on and on. What's my point? If I can't raise my family, if I can't go to university, if I can't use Internet to argue with somebody....Why should I have a democracy? Not to mention Indonesia and the Phillipines, tow democracies, have two of the most corrupt governments in the world. (ridiculous, en?) As for the value of democracy and an authoritarian system, western philosophers have done the comparison 1500 years ago. You just read it. Why the Chinese way is still working? Because with all its injustices and grievances, under this system, most Chinese are better off than they were ten years ago, the economy is growing fast, the society is mordernizing... You just deny them! The Chinese society is too complex and you can reason either way and you will find plenty of evidence. Should I point out some silly and stupid aspects of the western society where you are from? The Americans have freedom of speech, democracy and human rights, can they stop someone from blowing the WTC in 1995(?) before 9.11, can they prevent their government from invading a country without adequate justification, can the British government stop some young Pakistani guys from turning into terrorists? It's your own society which is rotting away and fighting a tough war with terrorists. Yeah, it makes you feel better to point fingers at China. But Beijing and Pudong, Shanghai where you live are not hit by terrorists. We have our problems, but we will fix them one by one. All along the way, we enjoy relative political stability and economic prosperity. Why? Not beacause some westerners keep pointing fingers at us, but because we Chinese are working all along the way. By the way, how about your society and governments? As a Xinhua correspondent, I can tell you something that you don't know. Two months ago, some 10 ruling parties in Africa, including Nigeria's, sent a high level delegation to China. Obviously, they are not in Beijing to learn how to arrest people beacause they say something. SO why they are there? There must be something in China which you don't know and which was valued by them. Not to mention Vietnam, which has followed the Chinese path during the last two dacades. All these countries are crazy? No. It's beacause for some developing countries, the Chinese way is more efficient and more down-to-earth than the western way. comment added :: 12th August 2005, 16:04 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, See, now you're making broad generalizations. And saying "there must be something in China... which was valued by them" but not really saying what. And as for your comment about Indonesia and the Philippines being corrupt, point taken, but then you cite Nigeria? And China... My original point stands: there is something wrong with a country where freedom of speech is so completely limited, but where comments such as those above are permitted. I don't wanna censor anything, but if you wanna censor something, censor this BS that I translated above. comment added :: 12th August 2005, 16:57 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, And also, why characterize what I am saying as "lecturing"? I am not lecturing anyone on anything. I am not pointing fingers. I am simply pointing out a problem, and it's a big problem. comment added :: 12th August 2005, 17:39 GMT+08 Chinese Reporter made this comment, My point is: freedom of speech, or democracy, though very good, can't solve the urgent problems facing most developing countries. That's why the Indonesian government is more corupt even than the communist government of China; that's why Iran has free elections but the people are still anti-American and seeking nuclear weapons, that's also why many African countries that have democracy are now on the verge of state failure. You want me to say directly something that the African countries value? I thought you would have known that. Ok. What most developing countries value is China's experience in bringing an economic backwater into the world's fastest growing economy with national sovereignty guaranteed and social stability maintained relatively well. World Bank and IMF obviously can't do that because when they try to give orders to the southeastern Asian countries, they pushed their economies into a big financial crisis in 1997. Can Washington do that? No. They support one of the most corrupt and repressive governments in the world for oil, they turn Iraq into a nightmare, they always portray the emerging China as a threat, which turns out to be a scapegoat for anything from joblessness to the so-called double deficits. What a westerner like you, well-educated and liberal-minded, can do for the developing countries? You have good intentions and you have principles, but what you lack is the knowledge of the grey area in a black and white world. You can't reconcile a China with the most dynamic economy in Asia with a China which jails "prisoners of conscience". China has problems, sure. We'll fix them one by one and we have been working on that. Could you please just be a little bit more patient? Hundreds of thousands of Chinese, including me, are thinking about the problems every day and we hope someday we can solve them in a smooth way without stirring much social instability. comment added :: 12th August 2005, 18:32 GMT+08 Passby made this comment, Chinese Reporter, please don't take Kevin serious. He doesn't deserve your effort. comment added :: 14th August 2005, 12:13 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, Stopping jailing people would not cause social instability. That is not what is driving the economy. And permitting the comments above, while erasing or blocking other more peaceful comments, is simply wrong. comment added :: 15th August 2005, 09:53 GMT+08 Kevin made this comment, What sense does it make, in this thread, to say that a lecture is being given? What sense does it make to say "oh, China is developing so fast and Africa is learning from us." First of all, it is not comments such as those above that are driving economic development. Suppression of speech and jailing of writers does not drive economic development. Second, China's economic development is actually not that special. We've seen economic development in Taiwan, Japan, HOng Kong, all throughout Asia, and all throughout the rest of the world. Third, there is much more to life than economic development. And Chinese society will either need to come to terms with that, or face a serious dilemma.

Top Ten Most Shameful Quotations from Modern-Day China 1st Place Children, don't any of you move! Let the officials go first! (An official in the Municipal Commission of Education said this through a loudspeaker to a group of terrified primary school students during a disaster in Kelamayi, Xinjiang) 2nd Place Didn't just a couple of kids die? What's the big deal?! (An official said this to enraged family members of victims of the flood in Shalan). 3rd Place Notify us when he dies! (An official said this to peasants who tried to seek help for Zhang Hengsheng of Hengyang before he froze to death on the sidewalk). 4th Place Give me a break, I've seen this plenty of times before! (An official in Dingzhou said this to local residents who got down on their knees to beg him for more assistance). 5th Place Everyone is welcome to come to China. It's safe, there's no SARS! (An official in the Ministry of Health made this declaration in public right before the truth about the extent of SARS infections was uncovered). 6th Place This operation was good for these girls. We did this operation solely for the greater public good. (A doctor at the Eastern City Hospital made this comment about a uterus removal operation done on two mentally disabled 14-year-old girls sent to his hospital from the Nantong Child Welfare Center in Jiangsu Province). 7th Place Whether or not justice was served should be determined by the final results. While the original results of this case were wrong, they were corrected. Doesn't this show that justice has been served? (Regarding the She Xianglin case, in which a man served 11 years for the murder of his wife until his wife returned home one day, completely unharmed, from another city. A judge from the case shared his opinion with the media). 8th Place I saw us as the servants of the people, so the people should pay for what we eat, what we wear, what we do... (Ma Hongmei, Former Vice Mayor of Shanwei in Guangdong Province said this when arrested for corruption). 9th Place If you've got the heart to do it, then you've still got your dreams, so just go ahead and start over! (Song on a CCTV commercial supposedly providing spiritual support to laid-off workers). 10th Place Go look for whoever it was you were working for! The government doesn't owe you any money! (An official in the Jixi Municipal Government in Heilongjiang Province said this to migrant workers seeking help in getting unpaid wages).

I often hear quite a lot of comments about racial chauvinism, racism, and lack of understanding when people make criticisms of China. But wouldn't a failure to criticize also be a crime in itself? I translated the essay below by a prominent Chinese author currently in the US, cuz i feel it sheds some light on this subject. A Different Type of Discrimination by the International Community Towards China- 3heng Y1 Hu P--g once took note of a very interesting phenomenon: the international community is quick to attack the United States for “overuse of the death penalty,” but turns a blind eye to the ruthless use of such practices in China. His explanation was: cruelness and inhumanity is the regular state of affairs in China, so people feel there is no use in even bothering to bring this up. His conclusion: this is a different type of discrimination against the Chinese people than that which the go----ment usually mentions. I agree, as people will always have different standards for the behavior of a gentleman and that of a hooligan. According to a Xinhua report from Washington, “data from the US Bureau of Justice Statistics shows that there are over 2 million people serving prison and jail sentences in the United States. According to documents prepared by the British gov---ment, this exceeded the amount of prisoners in all other countries, including Russia, ranking first in the world.” By the time I got to this part of the report, I started feeling a little suspicious: what does “all other countries, including Russia” mean? What about China, who accounts for half of the executions in the world one year after another? We Chinese citizens aren’t even qualified to be included amongst “other countries”? Wouldn’t you say this is a form of discrimination? According to Hong Kong’s Chen--ing magazine, the Chinese judiciary recently reported to the Pol---uro the number of citizens interrogated and detained last year in criminal and economic cases came to 1.513 million. Now let’s make a rough estimate (there was no data available on average sentences): if the average sentence was 3 years, then at least 2.3 million people would be in jail at once; while if the average sentence was 4 years, this number would go way beyond 3 million. Don’t forget to take note of the fact that this does not yet include the massive population in “jail with Chinese characteristics”- the system of reform through l--or. Also take into consideration the fact that official publicized statistics in China are… shall we say, less than reliable? The number of people trapped in the judicial system may in fact be much higher than the statistics above show. For example, according to a publicized report by the Supreme Court, there were over 1.5 million criminal cases in the country back in 1999, yet internal gov---ment reports at the time actually said there were 6.22 million such cases. That’s four times the publicized statistic! So do we need to multiply the numbers above by four? There’s simply no way to know for sure. There’s no doubt that when the British gov--ment named the country with the most prisoners in the world, they simply excluded China. Now this is the type of racism that gets my blood boiling! Unfortunately, this type of racism is everywhere you look. According to official estimates by the United Nations, there are over 4 billion mice around the globe, a number pretty close to the world’s population. But according to Beijing’s Evening News, there are nearly 4 billion mice in China, more than three times our country’s population. Obviously, the UN estimate left out China, depriving us of another sure “first place” in world rankings! Crows have no right to laugh at the fact that a boar is black, as crows are even darker themselves.

Also from the SCMP. Everyone adopt a HK couple and tell them how to have sex. I'm going to go make my contribution! Clueless couples groping in the dark on sex Andy Cheng Growing numbers of people are seeking help from the Family Planning Association because they do not know how to have sex. Grace Wong Ching-yin, who heads the fertility service, said: "Some married couples are not familiar with their body parts. They don't know where their sex organs are." Dr Wong said there were some couples who did not know the procedures involved in sexual intercourse. "They do not know the physical changes associated with sexual response, like males having erections." As well as a lack of knowledge, some couples have psychological problems associated with sex. "Some believe sex is dirty," explained Dr Wong, adding that this could be due to their past experience or religious beliefs. Dr Wong said couples who failed to successfully have sex on their first night often became stressed in their later attempts to get more intimate. Emil Ng Man-lun, one of the city's best-known sexologists, said he had seen plenty of cases of couples who did not know how to have sex. Umm, wow...

Dear friends, After trying to access my blocked blog for about 6 months now, I have decide to give up on blogcity and move here. I apologize to blog-city (who probably won't miss the 9-10 people who now visit my blog there daily, for some bizarre reason, since I haven't posted for 2 months), as well as those readers who had a hard time transitioning from kevininpudong.blog-city.com to kevininpudong.blog.com. I guess just delete that -city part and you're all set. That's one of the reasons I picked this server.... Anyway, I'll try to post more often up on this bitch. Hope ya enjoy. KEVIN