Election rhetoric drives China to speak out [Global Times]

Communication without considering that feedback is an integral part of the chain can be short-sighted. Populist mouthpiece (with a 1.7m circulation and a substantial diasporic Chinese readership) Global Times performs its role in a soft power flexing of muscle against negative overseas impressions. It strikes back against China-bashing in this op-ed.

The words uttered by Romney are like those of young cynics on the Internet. If he does what he has promised, he will become a president that holds extremely nationalistic views toward trade with China and may trigger a trade war between the two nations. The US economy, in its current state, wouldn’t be able to stand such consequences…

As US elections often involve China-bashing, China cannot remain out of the affair. China should play a role in the elections and correct the attitude of both candidates and the American public toward China.

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Election rhetoric drives China to speak out
Op-Ed
Source – Global Times, published September 21, 2012

Campaigns for the US presidential election are well underway. Both the Republican candidate Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are competing for the toughest stance involving China. Romney promised to take action against China on his first day of office if elected, and Obama took the relay baton by bringing up a trade case at the WTO against China’s automobile industry.

It’s an old story, China becoming a political card to play in US elections. This year, Romney and Obama seem to be playing it more heavily.

China has been blamed for the US’ falling unemployment rate and taking jobs from Americans.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Economics, Finance, global times, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Nationalism, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S., China's Rise, International Relations, Nationalism, Politics, Propaganda, Public Diplomacy, Trade, U.S.

Ana Palacio: The Next Task for China’s New Leaders [Straits Times]

Ana Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister shares her thoughts on areas the new Chinese leadership should be paying attention on.

First, China’s state of flux despite its ‘outward appearance of monolithic resolve.’ Second, the growing demands of the stratification and divides of Chinese society. Third, its conduct of foreign policy.

It is, therefore, little surprise that China’s policies are widely regarded as a reflection of former Chinese Premier Deng Xiaoping’s call for a strategy of “hiding our light and nurturing our strength.” Ana Palacio

However, if that is her assessment of the wider interpretation of Deng’s call, then therein lies another problem – because the saying defers to good form, and not misdirection.

Read up more about Ana Palacio here at Project Syndicate.

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Ana Palacio: The Next Task for China’s New Leaders
by Ana Palacio for Project Syndicate
Source – The Straits Times, Global Perspectives, published September 21, 2012

BEIJING – On a recent fact-finding trip to China, organised by the European Council on Foreign Relations, I began with the assumption that the country’s biggest challenge revolved around the need to promote domestic consumption in order to maintain rapid economic growth. By the end of the trip, what had emerged was a complex picture of Chinese assertiveness and uncertainty, poise and anxiety.

Although impending, the 18th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is shrouded in mystery. While the congress is presumably set for October, the exact dates remain unknown, as does much about the internal process and preparatory discussions.

For much of this year, there seemed to be one certainty in the coming leadership transition: the CCP’s new general secretary would be Xi Jinping, a man whose political vision could be elaborated in well under 30 seconds. But Xi’s mysterious vanishing act, in which he dropped from public view for almost two weeks in September – after abruptly canceling meetings with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the prime minister of Singapore (rare occurrences for the protocol-fixated Chinese leadership) – has stirred more speculation. It has also fueled concerns about whether so secretive a leadership can effectively govern the world’s second-largest economy.

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CrossTalk: China Power Engine Without Fuel? [Russia Today]

CrossTalk show at the APEC 2012 meeting from Russia Today : Running time 25.26minutes

Jim Rogers, William Powell from Time Magazine and David Pilling, Asia Editor from the Financial Times discuss the destiny of the Chinese economy.  For instance – Are we expecting too much for the Chinese economy when they loudly announced to the world they were slowing down?

Some key areas stood out:

1. Have we gotten too used to China as an engine of growth but it is not in the position to bail out the rest of the world. Though it has huge savings, its economy is only 1/10 of Europe, the US and Japan combined – has the world taken China for granted? Why can’t China have a recession?
2. Soft or Hard Landing? – depends on industry – basic services, consumer growth will continue to boom, though real estate stands to take a hard landing.
3. Signalling and shifting gears by looking inward – shift from investor-led growth with its side effects to a stronger focus on domestic demand.
4. Question of Western media lecturing China what to do + Bias of Financial media
5. Symbiosis rolling down the cliff (Interdependence becomes a crutch)
5. Cyclical slump with systemic implications because of the once-in-a-decade leadership transition
6. Questioning the veracity of government figures
7. Protectionism as a response
8. Nationalisation of the Yuan

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CrossTalk: China Power Engine Without Fuel?
with Peter Lavelle
Source – Russia Today on Youtube, September 12, 2012

Will over-investing lead to a bust? Could China shatter markets across the world? And if there is a hard landing, what will the consequences be? CrossTalking with Jim Rogers, William Powell and David Pilling from the Financial Times.

RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air

Filed under: APEC, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Finance, Financial Times, Government & Policy, Influence, japan, Media, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Politics, Pollution, Population, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S., China's Rise, Economics, Environment, International Relations, Japan, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, U.S.

The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands [New York Times]

From the New York Times: putting the knee jerk to rest?

The right to know is the bedrock of every democracy. The Japanese public deserves to know the other side of the story. It is the politicians who flame public sentiments under the name of national interests who pose the greatest risk, not the islands themselves. Han-yi Shaw

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The Inconvenient Truth Behind the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands
Comment by Nicholas Kristof
Article By Han-yi Shaw
Source – New York Times, published September 19, 2012

Source – Han-yi Shaw 2012
Diaoyu Island is recorded under Kavalan, Taiwan in Revised Gazetteer of Fujian Province (1871).

I’ve had a longstanding interest in the Diaoyu/Senkaku islands, the subject of a dangerous territorial dispute  between Japan and China. The United States claims to be neutral but in effect is siding with Japan, and we could be drawn in if a war ever arose. Let me clear that I deplore the violence in the recent anti-Japan protests in China:  the violence is reprehensible and makes China look like an irrational bully. China’s government should reign in this volatile nationalism rather than feed it. This is a dispute that both sides should refer to the International Court of Justice, rather than allow to boil over in the streets. That said, when I look at the underlying question of who has the best claim, I’m sympathetic to China’s position. I don’t think it is 100 percent clear, partly because China seemed to acquiesce to Japanese sovereignty between 1945 and 1970, but on balance I find the evidence for Chinese sovereignty quite compelling. The most interesting evidence is emerging from old Japanese government documents and suggests that Japan in effect stole the islands from China in 1895 as booty of war. This article by Han-Yi Shaw, a scholar from Taiwan, explores those documents. I invite any Japanese scholars to make the contrary legal case. Nicholas Kristof

Filed under: Back to China, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Diaoyu Fishing Boat Incident 2010, East China Sea, Economics, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, japan, Mapping Feelings, Media, military, Nationalism, New York Times, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Soft Power, Taiwan, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S., China's Rise, Defense, East China Sea, Economics, International Relations, Japan, Natural Resources, Strategy, Territorial Disputes

The Ten Grave Problems Facing China [The China Story]

From the Australian Centre for China in the World.

Back in 1956, confronted with the task of making a new China, Mao in the speech  ‘On the Ten Great Relationships’ 论十大关系 outlined the challenges that faced the CCP’s transformation of China.

Fast forward to 2012, the once-in-a-decade leadership transition sees Deng Yewen, senior editor of the Party mouthpiece Study Times frame a wide spanning ‘The Ten Grave Problems’ as an urgent agenda that demands the attention of the incoming leaders.

This piece by the centre also provides some history into Chinese intelligentsia and their vying to provide intellectual and strategic advice to the contenders for power. Suggestive that the party is not filled with automatons or reinforcing of the idea that the Chinese collective has always been a dynamic process?

China’s Hu and Wen blasted by party paper editor (China Daily Mail, September 4, 2012) provides an interesting perspective on faction and solidarity challenges right at the top.

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The Ten Grave Problems Facing China
by Geremie R Barmé
Source – The China Story by the Australian Centre for China in the World, published September 8, 2012

In April 1956, Mao Zedong gave a speech to the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party titled ‘On the Ten Great Relationships’ 论十大关系. It was a decisive period for New China. The initial surge of nationalisation that saw the country’s industry and agriculture come under state control was building into a tidal wave of radical socialism that would dominate the country for the next two decades. In the build up to this next stage of dirigisme Mao thought it essential to articulate the problems facing the fledgling People’s Republic. He listed ten issues that underlined social, economic, regional and national policy; he was in reality outlining the challenges that faced the Communist Party’s experiment in transforming China.

A popular observation about political uncertainty in Chinese holds that ‘when evil prognosticators appear in all quarters it is a sign of the end of days’ 末世征兆，妖孽四起. Elsewhere we have noted the dire warnings issued by left-leaning critics of China’s Communist Party such as the Children of Yan’an and the latter-day red fundamentalists of the Utopia group. In recent days, an editor with the journal Study Times 学习时报 has published a lengthy article in which he outlines ‘The Ten Grave Problems Facing China’.

During the once-in-a-decade ‘transition year’ of 2012-2013 which will see a change of party-state leadership, Communist Party propagandists have set the tone and require media outlets to celebrate clamorously the ‘ten golden years’ of rule under President/Party General Secretary Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao (for an example of these hosannas, see People’s Daily, ‘The Reasons for China’s “Glorious Decade” ’, in our China Story Yearbook 2012: Red Rising, Red Eclipse, ‘From Victory to Victory’). It is a time of extreme tension and high stakes, one in which China faces major political decisions that may well determine its direction not only for the next few years, but, as many feel, for long into the future. At this juncture a more lowly Party member than the late Chairman has offered his version of the problems facing the restive and fractured nation.

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Shanghai Super Girl, China’s American Idol [VBS.TV]

On China’s wave of cultural re-awakening with popular music and democracy. From the now defunct VBS in 2008.

Hunan TV’s Super Girl competition (formerly the Mengniu Sour Yoghurt Super Voice Girl) is the rough Chinese equivalent of American Idol. While pretty much every civilized country has their own Idol knockoff, China’s stands out among the rest by the sheer scale of the proceedings. Last year’s final episode was seen by over 400 million viewers, making it not only the most watched TV program in the history of ever, but giving it a larger audience than the populations of the United States and Britain combined. The show also drew in an estimated 1.2 billion votes over the course the 2007, which in a country that doesn’t even bother with show elections is a pretty major exercise in democracy.

VICE travelled to Shanghai to meet Yang Lei, last year’s Super Girl winner, and the best person we could think of to help guide us through the unyielding insanity that is 21st century China.

Filed under: Art, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Human Rights, Intellectual Property, Media, Peaceful Development, People, Population, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, The Chinese Identity, China's Rise, culture, Democracy, Public Diplomacy, Strategy

China vs. Japan: Rising Tensions Over the East China Sea [ABCNews]

It would be a stretch to connect the notion of war with an old enemy with peaceful development.

These are old wounds, no doubt.

The initial ponderance – was this something the central government wants – this takes away the element of stability right in its backyard. And it openly gives away how the Chinese will react when provoked.

Beyond the dominant-hegemonic reading for a need for defensive buffer and the natural resources, has public sphere 2.0 accelerated deeply rooted public sentiment and overwhelmed central authority, in this act of nationalism – misplaced or not? In a time when some quarters of the PLA have already declared they are ready for a fight, let’s hope the middle path in a time of interdependence prevails.

A look at the Global Times will reveal however, that state media also has a hand in stirring the cauldron. See Backing off not an option for China Op-Ed (Global Times, September 15, 2012). That said a later Op-Ed appeared entitled Violence is never appropriate solution saying such acts plague developing economies. In one of his first acts upon return to the public eye, China’s Xi calls Japan’s “purchase” of Diaoyu Islands “a farce” (Xinhua, September 19, 2012).

See also the official statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the “purchase” of the Diaoyu Island and its affiliated Nan Xiaodao and Bei Xiaodao and the implementation of the so-called “nationalization” of the islands.

The Falun-gong connected Epoch Times offers a oppositional theory that a regime faction is behind stirring the sentiment – it uses digital photos of protesters wearing bullet-proof vests under cover as an example. This of course provides thoughtful fodder on the state of central authority. See Behind China’s Anti-Japan Protests, the Hand of Officials (updated September 18, 2012)

China-Japan protests resume amid islands row during a highly sensitive date for China, 18 September marks the day in 1931 as precursor to Japan’s eventual invasion. (from the BBC, September 18, 2012) BBC’s Martin Patience: “Some of the protesters are pelting the embassy with plastic bottles and then they’re moving on“

Global Insights: Senkaku Dispute Reflects China-Japan Struggle for Regional Primacy (World Politics Review, September 18, 2012)

Tensions with Japan Increase as China Sends Patrol Boats to Disputed Islands (Time, September 14, 2012)

Looking further back in history, tension with the old enemy has been ongoing narrative for centuries. Indeed, just back in 2010, a Chinese fishing boat caused a stir.

Amid Tension, China Blocks Vital Exports to Japan (New York Times, Sep 2010)

U.S. ‘watching’ rising China-Japan tensions – Washington backs Tokyo in spat stemming from fishing-boat incident (Washington Times, Late Sep 2010)

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China vs. Japan: Rising Tensions Over the East China Sea
by Gloria Riviera and Akiko Fujita
Source – ABC News, published September 18, 2012

In Beijing on Tuesday there were two unusual occurrences. First, the city saw the largest protest in years take place outside of the Japanese Embassy. Thousands of Chinese took to the streets, angry over Japan’s claim to disputed islands in the East China Sea.

Second, there were clear blue skies from morning until night. The air pollution index was a staggeringly low 23, making it a beautiful day to call for war with an old enemy.

Protestors told ABC News they were there to claim territory that has been an inherent part of China since ancient times. One woman said, “We are here to declare our sovereignty over Japan!” Another man said, “If the nation needs us, we can all carry a gun to go to war.”

Filed under: ABC News, Beijing Consensus, Communications, Culture, East China Sea, Influence, International Relations, japan, Mapping Feelings, military, Nationalism, Peaceful Development, Politics, Strategy, Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, China's Rise, Defense, East China Sea, International Relations, Japan, Natural Resources, Strategy

The Fairytale of Chinese Data [Baldings World]

Recommended read: Taking a close examination at the myth of Chinese data using provincial 2011 GDP figures as an example.

Indeed, big numbers are bandied about by politicians, traders, financiers and commentators alike, many a time without checking the veracity of the information. With such instantenous information saturation today, perhaps the difficulty nowadays is not in selecting good information, but in sieving out the good stuff from the driftwood.

From Christopher Balding, a professor of business and economics at the HSBC Business School at the Peking University Graduate School.

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The Fairytale of Chinese Data
by Christopher Balding
Source – Baldingsworld.com, published September 14, 2012

During one of my classes I taught at Peking University, I was delivering a lecture that included some data I had downloaded from the Peoples Bank of China (PBOC) website.  A student cautiously raised their hand and asked where I had gotten the data.  Trying to blend into the Chinese university system, I proudly replied “The Peoples Bank of China website.”  The student looked at me sheepishly and asked “Do you believe that data?”.  Not wanting to engage in a discussion about the truthfulness of PBOC data during my early days at Peking University, I turned it around and asked “you tell me.  Should I?”  The student who asked the question shook his head and said no like he was teaching me something everyone already knows and the rest of the class agreed.

Chinese economic data is like surrealist or cubist art: it bears a vague resemblance to the underlying subject but no connection to reality.  Let me state this as plainly as possible: official Chinese economic data is science fiction.  Manufactured.  A figment of some party officials imagination.  Bogus.  As real as a 10 rmb DVD from a street vendor in Beijing.

It is a regular parlor game among China watchers to point out the number of errors in Chinese data.  No less than the US Federal Reserve was the latest to point out that official Chinese data may not be what it claims to be.  People have written entire books dedicated to deciphering the absolute mess that is official Chinese data.  Earlier this year, Tsinghua University professor and noted China blogger Patrick Chovanec (who you should read if you don’t already)  “kick(ed) up a hornets nest” when he said during a Bloomberg interview that “I was finding it harder and harder to reconcile China’s official CPI, GDP, and PMI numbers with what I was seeing and hearing on the ground.”  What is more astounding is that these blatantly and obviously manipulated figures would be believed by the financial industry, journalists, academics, and the world at large even when the fraud is so glaring.  Look at the latest provincial 2011 GDP figures in the figure below.

Source – Christopher Balding, 2012

China declared an official GDP growth rate of 9.2% for 2011.  Interestingly however, only six provinces out of 30 comprising 25% of Chinese population declare GDP growth rates equal to or less than 9.2%.  The CNBS must have invented a new type of math to come up with these growth numbers.  If GDP was reported based upon population weighted provincial GDP, 2011 Chinese GDP would be 11.8% instead.  Do not however make the mistake of believing that the 11.8% number is any more real than the 9.2% number as they both come from the Party’s imagination.  The CNBS conjuring the data with a magic wand couldn’t make its own numbers add.

Please click here to read the rest of the article at his website – http://www.baldingsworld.com

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The lucre of culture [China Daily]

Culture, commodification and public diplomacy:  Should we taking note of the commodification of millennia of Chinese culture? Could this be the great equalizer in China’s strategy in a complicated international political space?

“Culture is not only energy-efficient, but will also largely promote consumption and boost many related industries.” Li Jiansheng, director of the institute of culture of Beijing Academy of Social Sciences

Beijing is China’s political and cultural capital. Last year cultural and creative industries saw 8,500 companies with 1.4 million workers in a pillar industry worth US$142 billion. They accounted for 12.2% of the city’s GDP. The grand plan in the eyes of some, is for culture to contribute 25% to Beijing city’s GDP by 2020.

Often used in the negative, lucre seems to a negative suggestion about cultural capital being pegged as a pillar industry for the twelveth five-year plan from 2011 to 2015. Indeed, there looms the prospect the commodification of culture pigeonholes art becoming more design than expression as structured industry takes over the freedom of already limited liminal space.

Of course, all this will add up to China’s overall quest for equilibrium in foreign mindshare as it floods the global market with more tangible artefacts of its identity.

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The lucre of culture
by Liu Lu
Source – China Daily, published September 14, 2012

 

Visitors at a small outdoor market walk past paintings for sale in Beijing on Sept 8. Photo – David Gray, Reuters

Chinese capital banks on cultural blend to establish itself as a major presence in the international market

Culture is a lot more than just pretty pictures hanging on a wall, a ballet dancer gliding across a stage or a visit to a museum. Culture is also money, and in the cases of cities like London, Paris and New York, very big money indeed. Aware of the strong economic pulling power of culture, Beijing, with more than 3,000 years of history and a rich cultural heritage, is trying to shape itself into a world cultural metropolis on par with other renowned cultural centers.

Those efforts are being reinforced at a national level, where in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) the country’s cultural and creative industry receives particular attention, and the sector has become one of the economy’s most vigorous in recent years.

Related reading: In shadow of Basel fair, Beijing show sprouts

Beijing recorded the slowest economic growth among China’s provincial-level jurisdictions in the first six months of the year and, surveying alternative areas for growth, has been looking to culture as one of the key industries.

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Visa-free policy opens door to wider opportunities [Global Times]

The Great Wall opens in an outward display of affection: Tourism booster or opening of floodgates while the Chinese still find it hard to apply for visas to foreign countries? Catching up with the demands and frequency of transnational movement, Beijing is to offer foreign travelers 72-hour visa-free entry.

Singapore grants a 96-hour visa-free stay for Chinese travelers, and provides free shuttle bus, free subway pass, taxi guides and even free food coupons to invite foreigners to have a taste of local customs and flavors.

In comparison, China’s rigid 24-hour visa-free transit policy, which was adopted back in the 1980s and had been tainted by a planned economy mentality stressing regulation, appears quite incompetent.

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Visa-free policy opens door to wider opportunities
by Chen Chenchen
Source – Global Times, published September 17, 2012

Beijing will soon offer foreign travelers a 72-hour visa-free entry to boost local tourism and further open up the city, vice mayor Ding Xiangyang revealed Saturday.

The new policy has triggered huge controversy within Chinese public opinion. While some applauded the move, others slammed the authorities for opening the door to more foreigners who may seek illegal immigration, residence and employment, against the background of several high-profile cases involving foreigners in China. There are also voices berating the authorities for granting foreigners “supra-national treatment” whereas Chinese citizens face cumbersome procedures when applying for visas to foreign countries.

Such criticisms are not completely unwarranted, but the problem is that they merely focus on potential risks and challenges to judge whether the policy should be adopted or not. Undoubtedly, all countries with visa waiver projects face risks in entry-exit management. In the wake of the 9/11 attack, the US suspended a visa-free transit policy that had been practiced since 1952.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Domestic Growth, global times, Government & Policy, Influence, International Relations, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Tourism, China's Rise, culture, International Relations, Public Diplomacy, Tourism