Slowly build up; and break it down

Posted on October 24, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

I am glad the pirate issue has returned to the news, as I failed to get in a few points last time.


These ‘externalities’ as they were once called, i.e. pirates, are always less exogenous than they may appear. Crony corporatism, of course, provides the right conditions for this:


The UN special envoy for Somalia on Friday sounded the alarm about rampant illegal fishing and the dumping of toxic waste off the coast of the lawless African nation.

“Because there is no (effective) government, there is so much irregular fishing from European and Asian countries,” Ahmedou Ould Abdallah told reporters.

He said he had asked several international non-governmental organizations, including Global Witness, which works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide, “to trace this illegal fishing, illegal dumping of waste.”

“It is a disaster off the Somali coast, a disaster (for) the Somali environment, the Somali population,” he added.

Ould Abdallah said the phenomenon helps fuel the endless civil war in Somalia as the illegal fishermen are paying corrupt Somali ministers or warlords for protection or to secure fake licenses.



When will we get off our soapboxes and regulate ourselves as well as we would regulate our competitors? Is all the human rights stuff really just trash talk? Where does it all end?


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Wheels in Motion

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb


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I have been remiss in welcoming FOARP to the GSF, as he has and will be posting here whenever he feels like it.


I am glad to have a blogger of his capability, and somewhat surprised that he agreed to my proposal.


Welcome FOARP, looking forward to some good discussion!!


[Update: Well since pic handling sucks, let’s see what I can add here, oh how about more arrests over political speech and the rare earth metals issue returns to the news and we can expect many habitable planets in the universe.


Posted in Self-Referential | Tagged | 1 Comment

Where Will It All End?

Posted on October 23, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

Recently I have been thinking about outcomes. You know, behavioral outcomes and the reinforcement that naturally follows, and future behavior by other actor(s) that is influenced by the fate of earlier actors.

When we see someone get spanked (literally or figuratively), we oftentimes realize that we had better shape up, or we might get beat next, and of course the effect is (usually, mind you) even stronger when it is you that is getting beat down. Conversely, an environment of permissiveness is created when bad actions (whether implicitly or explicitly bad) are not punished or are encouraged, and this will naturally lead to an environment of permissiveness and wantonness, and to increasingly extreme behavior.

We saw this in Abu Ghraib, but from a legal standpoint we have little knowledge or even vocabulary to describe precisely where the point of culpability stands when ‘creating an environment of’ whatever is accomplished. This process is understood only as a slouch into insanity; there is no model of the pillars of civility and rationality that must be broken down to achieve such a horrible result.

Fortunately, according to the records we already have, I am quite sure a full and fair investigation will lead to criminal charges against top political figures utilizing existing law for creating such an environment with the knowledge if not actual intent that crimes would be committed there.

But this post is not about Cheney and the torturers at all. It about the cheerleaders of war, the Sullivans and Hitchens and McArdles and Friedmans, and all the others, down to the littlest ones over at Renew America or World Net Daily.

These are people who actively pleasured themselves with the prospects of violence and cruelty of war, with all of the attendant rape, pillage and murder fully realized (more than fully realized, probably) within their tiny skulls. These are people who were able to wrap anything in the entire world up within their need for power, even if it was just (in the case of some of the less well-compensated cheerleaders) power at a distance.
Continue reading →

Posted in International Justice, us.politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

Sentencing in Shishou

Posted on October 18, 2009 by FOARP

[Cross-posted at FOARP]

Remember Shishou? It was before Urumqi, but after Lhasa. Well, the five people who the local authorities have accused of “organising and inciting” the riots in which more than 60 police officers were injured have been sentenced, and the sentences seem to have been quite light – 5 years imprisonment being the longest. German Sino-blogger JustRecently has a good round-up of the coverage here. Noteworthy points?

1) Not insubstantial compensation was paid to the family of the man who allegedly committed suicide even after family members were arrested for inciting disturbances.

2) The local party chief was forced to resign.

3) Upwards of ten thousand people took to the streets, dozens of policemen were injured, yet only five people were punished.

What does this tell us? Where ethnic minorities upon which the government is not reliant for support protest they are punished severely as the ultimate cause which they seek is greater autonomy, which severely risks the unity of the Chinese state as it stands. However, where Han protest both the methods of policing deployed against them and the punishments used against those who lead the protest will be much less harsh – why? It is because no Chinese government can afford the kind of loss of prestige that would result from the use of harsh methods against the very people that the Chinese government truly relies on for support and which it truly represents. For the events of 20 years ago to be repeated would mean the death-knell of the Chinese state as it stands.

Posted in China, Law, Uncategorized | Tagged , | 2 Comments

"No Explosives"

Posted on October 18, 2009 by FOARP

[Cross-posted from FOARP]

This fascinating, if not exactly information-rich account written by a Canadian journalist covering the trial of six dissidents in Vietnam caught my eye:

“Floral bouquets brightened the dark wood. Steaming glasses of tea were poured.

“Good morning,” an official said as she walked past. Everyone seemed to be polite and smiling, except the man who delivered the briefing about how we should behave at court.

“No explosives,” he reminded us.

No cellphones either.

And don’t try to do anything outside of the court, which seemed to mean don’t talk to anybody.

He spoke with a white bust of Ho Chi Minh behind him next to a hammer and sickle, and a red banner that said, “Forever the glorious Communist Party of Vietnam.”"

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It's Crippling, Never Really Knowing

Posted on October 11, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

Jeremey Goldkorn at Guardian confirms many of my suspicions about the internet blocking:


I do not even know if the block was a decision made by a person, or the effects of a filtering software that decided we had too many “sensitive” keywords. There is no hotline you can call and say: “Comrade, why did you censor my website?”


Danwei.org is in good company: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and hundreds of other foreign sites are inaccessible in China at the moment. But the difference between those sites and mine is that I live in China, and the website is part of a company that operates in China and pays my bills. We’re also small: we are not a platform for citizens broadcasting their opinions like Twitter. It was something specific that we published that got us blocked, and it feels personal.



Wonderful to get this information, this experience, out there into the public domain.


I believe I can provide another data point on this round of blocking, which of course took most of us by surprise. Later on, I happened to go to a site known as Fool’s Mountain, which is generally a pro-China English language site. I have never been a regular reader, but in any case I stopped by one day, (this is after the crackdown had already gotten pretty severe), and the site was still up.


One ‘mini-post’ on the front page did have the dreaded ‘D’ word, I noticed, and although I didn’t care about that particular author’s opinion, I did find that the post itself was blocked, but the rest of the site was still up…for another few hours. And then, it was gone.


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Perfect for the Experts

Posted on October 4, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

In casting about for a decent topic of the day, I found that Bill D has a new domain, http://thisischinablog.com/


One of my failings is that I do not search the English China-Web, and do not run through a list of good sites regularly, which I should. I believe I mentioned before somewhere or another, I just came late to the China blogosphere as a reader, and am much more stuck in the US liberal blog-world, or whatever its called. The echo chamber perhaps.


Anyway, I thought I spied a likely target: A post about the WSJ talking China finance. But I found the WSJ piece fairly lacking in teeth, having been written by a (presumably left-wing and socialist) professor instead of one of the many ideologues (wingnut welfare personified) skipping about over there.


The takeaway that I like in the piece is:


Capital account convertibility for the yuan would subject Beijing’s policies to the judgments of individual investors at home and abroad capable of contributing to large capital flows, including highly temporary and speculative gushes. It would put China’s economy much more at the mercy of global financial forces.



Which really means subjecting China’s assets to the whims of unregulated hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds, and the like. I love the ‘individual’ stuck in there, so disarming. These predatory institutions, rationalized by a failed ideology, look for profit wherever they can and care nothing for the social, economic and political fallout that results.


Bill, with his long memory, comments:


Mind you, it’s understandable after the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997 that the powers that be do not want to expose the yuan to Homerian struggles. Hong Kong, though…



Remember all the lectures from quarters such as the WSJ to China about its currency? And yet, while steadily ignoring all the advice, China has managed to maintain a stable currency for over a decade now. Indeed, over the past eight years, China has done a much better job than the US about managing its currency. Funny how that worked out, isn’t it?


I left that little snippet about Hong Kong in Bill’s quote to remind me of something: Does anyone remember the role that hedge funds played in fomenting the 97 crisis? Well, they attacked Hong Kong’s currency and stock market at one point, and were beat off by the Mainland.


Beijing knows all about the games. However, I am surprised to note that the WSJ piece is pretty good, and makes some solid points on the continuing integration of China’s economy into the global economy, which I believe to be inevitable, for a variety of reasons that will not be presented today.



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Mistakes are repeated over…

Posted on October 3, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

This review of a Joseph Stiglitz piece in Le Monde diplomatique, from Eurozine is interesting:


In Le Monde diplomatique (Berlin), Joseph E. Stiglitz urges the G20 to find global answers to the financial crisis, instead of sticking to strategies that fail completely to take account of developing nations.


“The US might well be in a position financially to save its banks and to stimulate its economy, but the developing nations are not. Lately however they have been an important motor for worldwide economic growth. For that reason, a global recovery without their participation is barely conceivable.”


Yet at this week’s Pittsburgh summit, the G20 will reconsider neither the IMF’s counterproductive conditions for financial aid for developing countries, which slow down rather than accelerate their economies, nor WTO tolls that de facto discriminate against poorer countries.



Remember when China was making these very complaints, and being vilified for them? Funny how this is now seen as commonly understood, even as it perpetuates. I would add that the unfair rules were put in place to serve the financial industry and corporate interests, but that sort of goes without saying, usually, at least in polite society.


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All step back, and give me room

Posted on October 2, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

I have decided to be good all this week, and focus on how and why China has made such progress, even though the censorship at present is as tightly-enforced as possible, to the extent that all proxies are blocked, and hence half the internet is inaccessible to me. China’s coming out party apparently requires them to restrict my access to information even more than usual.


So when you read me complaining bitterly one day and praising China’s progress the next, perhaps you will understand. I can’t even do research to write posts praising China because the blocks prevent me from using the major search engines.


Today, as I am constrained by time, I would just like to highlight the populist policies that China implemented from the very early days. Universal education (which later became somewhat de-funded, unfortunately) has been widely implemented, and in theory, every family was given an apartment back in the 1980s.


Originally, health care was also provided, however later access has become more restricted as hospitals became effectively independent corporate entities. I believe China will have to provide universal care in the future, but in any case, at present cheap, effective care is accessible to a huge portion of the population.


We should not forget that the Chinese Constitution promises food and shelter to all citizens, and the inclusion of these terms might indicate something about where China was when the document was created. While these rights are not currently actionable, they do set down a clear baseline for the society.


A huge portion of China’s internal investment has been populist in nature. India makes gleaming airports and allows private companies to make lush office parks, but simply allows persistent, extreme poverty to continue in between.


In China, these people in the middle have not been forgotten. China and India were once in very similar straits. Today, China beats India on any number of basic statistics, such as illiteracy rates and educational levels, and in some cases the contrast is stark.


There was no model for this. China has had to move slowly, one step at a time, but has (almost) always continued the move forward, towards peace and prosperity.


So, even though I hate censorship and condemn China’s thin-skin and arrogance regarding foreign events held on foreign soil, I am very sorry to report the truth of this statement:


We did not come to be instructed about democracy.



The lectures about democracy, indeed all the lectures, are over. China has made it, and may have created a better model of development for other poor countries.


Wait, that isn’t right. China will never have the luxury that the US had for so many years, of being able to ignore or eliminate all criticism. The lectures will continue, and China had better get used to them. But the days of exceptionalism, for all nations, will come to an end as a new global balance is struck between a resurgent China and a suddenly-vulnerable US. We aren’t there yet, by any means, (this recent talk of the Yuan as a reserve currency was laughable), but a balance will certainly be struck over the next 20-30 years.


And that balance, if struck properly and fairly, can usher in a long period of global peace and prosperity for an increasing share of the world’s population.


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There Are Words That Speak To Everyone

Posted on October 1, 2009 by Rhodo Zeb

Congrats China. Enjoy your party. You deserve it.


My ten years here have been notable for almost unbroken progress and social development, with of course a few bumps in the road. But I can say without doubt that the Chinese people are filled with an optimistic hope for the future, and credit must go to the organization that has created an environment where this hope can grow and develop.


At the same time, it is going to be hard work for the aspirations of the people of China to be met by their government. The development process is still in the early stages, and there are many more problems to be overcome as well as pitfalls to be avoided, so there will still be some tough times ahead. But the future, one of unlimited possibilities, seems quite bright from the vantage point of Shanghai, 2009.


Happy Birthday!


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