Latest entry
- James Reynolds
- 7 Jan 09, 09:37 GMT
This is Mao Xinyu, the 38-year-old grandson of Chairman Mao.
Grandson Mao is a senior colonel in the People's Liberation Army. He's now become well-known here as a blogger. The readers of the People's Daily online have just voted his blog the most popular of the last year.
Mao's blog is largely dedicated to an appreciation of his grandfather, who died when he was six years old. The founder of communist China is still admired by many people here -despite the fact that millions died because of famine and conflict during his rule (an official Communist Party verdict delivered after his death ruled - with precision - that Chairman Mao was 70% right and 30% wrong).
"The greatest happiness of my life and satisfaction come from a real understanding of a great man. And he is my grandfather," grandson Mao writes.
In an interview, grandson Mao leaves no doubt about his feelings...
Q: You have said that your grandfather is god; is he a perfect man to you?
A: Yes.
Mao Xinyu's resemblance to his grandfather means that he tends to get stopped whenever he goes out in public. Last March, I watched him try to make his way to a political conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, held just a few metres away from his grandfather's mausoleum. Grandson Mao had to stop every few steps to pose for pictures with delighted Chairman Mao fans (my own attempts to speak to him didn't go so well - he ran down the steps of the Hall to avoid doing an interview). Enjoy his blog.
Recent entries
- James Reynolds
- 6 Jan 09, 10:21 GMT
Shortly after Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January 2006, I went to Gaza to find out how victory had changed a movement mostly known for its armed activities (I was one of the BBC's Middle East Correspondents at the time).
My colleagues and I interviewed a senior Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, who'd just been appointed Foreign Minister. We asked him about the fact that many Western governments had decided to boycott the Hamas-led administration. He didn't seem to mind the boycott all that much. He let us know that he was in a hurry because he had to go off to meet a Chinese delegation. Now, of course, I wish I'd asked him exactly who whom he was planning to meet.
China isn't particularly known for its diplomatic involvement in the Middle East conflict. One of China's famous ground rules has been not to get too involved in other people's conflicts.
But as China's power has grown, that ground rule has begun to erode. In order to protect its own position, China now finds that it cannot always sit to one side. So, this country now plays an active role in diplomatic talks with both North Korea and Iran. It's got its own special envoy to Darfur. It takes part in negotiations over climate change and world trade.
In other words, if you want to solve any of the world's major problems you've got to get China involved.
Because of this, some have called for China to play a much bigger role in resolving the crisis in Gaza. There's an argument that China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council which would be seen as a neutral broker in the conflict.
But so far, China has decided to engage at its own pace. The Chinese government has called for an end to armed conflict in Gaza. The Foreign Ministry has announced a donation of $1m in humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people.
You may be surprised to learn that China does actually have its own Special Envoy to the Middle East. The envoy's name is Ambassador Sun Bigan. He's been doing the job since April 2006. He is a deliberately low-profile, even semi-anonymous figure. During recent days he's been holding talks here in Beijing with foreign diplomats. "He will be making unremitting efforts" to secure a ceasefire, says the Foreign Ministry.
For now, these efforts do not appear to include an immediate trip to the Middle East itself. The Foreign Ministry has declined to say when Mr Sun might return to the region.
- James Reynolds
- 5 Jan 09, 11:36 GMT
If you watch the Chinese state TV news, you might get the impression that Chinese officials have more stamina than anyone else in the world. Almost every evening here, news bulletins show rows and rows of officials faithfully listening to long speeches made by Communist Party leaders. The TV pictures show the officials carefully noting down their leaders' words for further study later on. None of the officials ever shows any trace of boredom whatsoever - no matter how long or how dreary the speech they're listening to. Compare this to the House of Lords in the UK where for many years the standard listening position bore a striking resemblance to the dozing position.
But occasionally there's a bit of a slip. Have a look at these two versions of a single picture taken at a conference on commercial scams held in China's southern province of Yunnan.
The first version shows the man in the the blue t-shirt with his eyes comfortably shut. Look closely at the man to his right - he may have his eyes closed as well. This picture was originally put up on an official propaganda noticeboard. It's not the kind of thing you tend to see in the official media (you can get into serious trouble here for sleeping during a conference.) The authorities were informed. This embarrassing version was quickly replaced by the new, improved version reprinted below it. This time the gentlemen's eyes are open - painted open, say Chinese bloggers. It's one way to look interested.
- James Reynolds
- 2 Jan 09, 10:10 GMT
Almost every day here, I get a text message in Chinese from the number 10086. This is a general service number which sends out promotional messages from the phone company and also public service announcements from the government - eg "Traffic's bad on such-and-such road in Beijing" or "It's going to be very cold tomorrow".
Usually you just ignore these messages. But at 9.19pm on Thursday night, something more interesting from 10086 landed in my in-box.
"Today 22 dairy companies including Sanlu have this message for you: We are very sorry to have caused harm to all children and society because of the problematic milk powder. We offer our sincere apologies, and plead for forgiveness. We have resolved to learn the lessons from this and to make sure that no substandard products are made in the future. We welcome supervision from all walks of society. We are operating a compensation system for the families of the sick babies, and are setting up a medical fund for more treatment for those who recover from kidney disease. We wish you and your family a happy new year."
As you may have guessed, this message refers to a story which first broke in September. Baby milk formula in China was found to be contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine. Six babies died and tens of thousands more were treated for kidney stones.
This week, executives from the Sanlu dairy group went on trial. But dairy companies clearly felt that they needed a more direct way of saying sorry. So they used 10086.
But for some parents, text message apologies, trials, and compensation funds aren't enough.
Earlier today, a group of parents whose children got sick from contaminated milk powder invited the foreign media to a news conference at a hotel in Beijing. In China, the decision to speak publicly to international reporters on a sensitive topic carries a certain degree of risk. The police will want to know who's talking and what they're saying.
I went with a colleague to the parents' news conference. Things began badly -the parents we met told us that the police had stopped five of their group from attending. Then, the hotel decided not to allow the remaining parents to speak to us inside the lobby. So we all went outside into the cold. A security guard shooed us away from the hotel's foreground car park. We gathered again by a nearby, non-descript wall. A police car parked nearby.
"We are here today to claim rights for our babies," said Lan Juanxian, the mother of 14-month-old twin sons who were both diagnosed with kidney stones.
"Our babies have been diagnosed with kidney stones, but we don't know what other diseases they will contract when they grow up. We know that the government has a compensation plan. My babies can get 2000 yuan ($290) according to the plan. But I can't accept that amount. The money I spent on Sanlu's milk powder is much more than that. Plus my babies have not fully recovered. What about the future?"
"We are consumers. According to laws, we have every right to ask the dairy companies to do something for us," said Jiang Yalin, whose 17-month-old daughter was diagnosed with kidney stones.
"The dairy companies are the ones to blame because they added toxic materials to their products. The government is good since it provides free medical diagnosis and treatment for our babies. I think it is a responsible government... although we don't agree with the current compensation plan, the government is starting to press the companies to set up a medical fund. I believe they can do it better in the future."
A news conference like this one tends to be covered by two sets of people: reporters, and smartly-dressed men filming the reporters.
From experience, it's fair to assume that the people filming the reporters are plain-clothes police officers. At this news conference, I counted around half a dozen men hovering around, taking pictures of the event.
They didn't interfere with our work - Chinese law states that foreign reporters need only the consent of their interviewees, not the police. Instead, their task appeared to be to document the news conference in as much detail as possible. So, as one man took a picture of me, I took a picture of him.
The parents say that they will continue their campaign for full, long-term medical treatment for their children. I'll let you know if I get any more interesting texts from 10086.
- James Reynolds
- 1 Dec 08, 11:00 GMT
Many older people do what they've done for years - head to the park (at dawn) to exercise or sing. I once joined a group of people in a Beijing park on a freezing morning as they happily belted their way through a bunch of folk songs.
Others play badminton and ping-pong in local gyms, where normal barriers tend to come down (I once interviewed a senior Chinese official at his ping-pong club - I'm sure he would never have agreed to speak to me had I applied for an interview through his office).
And, then there's clubbing and dancing. Despite the controversy over the latest Guns N' Roses album Chinese Democracy, I can assure you that - from personal research - Chinese men and women are more than happy to dance to old Guns N' Roses records when the DJ plays them.
More and more people here have money. So, those who can afford it often go for a day trip to the coast. On Saturday, a colleague and I went to the coastal city of Tianjin to join others in looking round a military theme park (more fun than it sounds).
We went by train from Beijing South station. Return tickets cost 116rmb ($17) each. The train left dead on time from a sparkling platform (workers were polishing it right up to the moment the train left).
Our ticket included a free bottle of water - handed out by smartly dressed stewards on board the train (the Chinese man sitting next to me didn't need one - he had a gigantic jam jar full of tea from which he sipped enthusiastically every five seconds during the journey).
The train's speed was displayed on a digital screen in the carriage (nerd that I am, I noted that it reached 330km/h - which makes it faster than the London-Paris Eurostar.) After 30 minutes, we got to Tianjin.
We then took a taxi to the theme park. Many cabs in China are built on the inside like rally cars - with a cage round the driver's seat to protect the driver from rowdy passengers. So, if you're sitting in the back your legs tend to get crushed by the metal bars of the driver's cage.
The central attraction at the Binhai military theme park is an old Soviet aircraft carrier - the Kiev (China doesn't yet have any aircraft carriers of its own). Tickets cost 110rmb ($16) each - a pretty hefty price, which is more than many can afford. I was the only Western visitor - everyone else was Chinese.
On board, there were a number of young guides with megaphones ready to take visitors round the ship. Each of the four decks had an obligatory refreshment stand. Wherever you go in China, all stands seem to sell the same thing - instant noodles, hot dog sausages, packets of dry biscuits.
The aircraft carrier was preserved as an old Soviet relic - it still had pictures of Lenin and even Putin on the walls. On deck, all the tourists were keen to take pictures of each other standing in front of the old warplanes.
Nearby, there was a building which advertised paintballing. Four life-size models of warlike soldiers were posted outside the front door (curiously, the models each had Western faces). Next door there was a restaurant built around what looked like an old tank. Alas, you couldn't take it for a drive.
For the first time, a generation in China has grown up with both money and free time. In a few years time, it's possible that China's middle class will be the largest in the world. How these millions of people spend their time and their money may help to determine how the rest of us live.
- James Reynolds
- 28 Nov 08, 13:30 GMT
An update on the case of Wo Weihan, the Chinese businessman sentenced to death for espionage. (See also: 'Taiwan spy' executed by Beijing).
On Friday evening, we received a statement from Mr Wo's family. Extracts below:
Today, our beloved father, Wo Weihan, was executed... At 5pm today, we were informed by Austria's deputy ambassador Stefan Scholz that the Chinese MFA gave him the confirmation that the execution had taken place in the morning today. According to our information, he was executed by gunshot... We are deeply shocked, saddened, disappointed and outraged.
As I write this entry, I'm unaware of any reaction from the Chinese government. But on Thursday, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the following: "China is a country run by law and the final verdict concerning Wo was independently made by the relevant Chinese judicial organs."
- James Reynolds
- 27 Nov 08, 13:06 GMT
We've reported on an appeal made by a woman whose father has been sentenced to death for espionage.
On Wednesday Ran Chen spoke to the BBC - on what she believed to be the eve of her father's execution.
On Thursday morning she was allowed to visit her father, Wo Weihan, for the first time in four years. Ms Chen believed this was a last gesture by the authorities before her father's execution.
After her visit, Ran Chen held a news conference. I'll quote in detail from what she told us, because it's extremely rare to get an insight into how a case like this proceeds in China. The legal system in this country operates amid great secrecy. China doesn't disclose how many people it executes every year, but human rights organisations charge that China executes more people than any other country in the world.
Most families involved in death penalty cases don't speak to the media. But Ran Chen has more freedom to talk because she holds a foreign passport (she obtained Austrian nationality several years ago - her father still holds Chinese citizenship).
This is what she told us.
In the morning, Ms Chen and her stepmother went to the Second Intermediate Court of Beijing:
"Before we went in there we had to sign a paper. We were told in a separate room what the rules were for such a family visitation and we were not allowed to bring any paper or pen. We were not allowed to bring anything apart from three or four photos."
Her father had been taken to the court from a prison hospital. He hadn't seen his family for four years.
"It was a complete surprise to him. He said he was sleeping this morning and then the people came and just took him to the court. He was sitting there and then all of a sudden we came in the door and he was very happy to see us... He was calm - he was obviously much older now. He has aged."
The meeting was heavily monitored.
"There was a glass window and I was sitting [on one side] with his wife. And he was sitting on the other side and there were two officials behind him. He was in handcuffs. And behind me were about five to six officials and also a video camera. So the whole conversation was taped."
There were restrictions as to what they were allowed to talk about.
"One of the rules was that we were not allowed to discuss the case. Whenever my father started to speak about the case he was told not to speak about the case."
But there was something Ms Chen had to know.
A few days ago, a low-ranking court official told the family by phone that the Supreme People's Court - China's highest court - had reviewed and approved Mr Wo's execution. Since the start of 2007, this court has had to review all death penalty cases in China. An approval clears the way for a death sentence to be carried out at any time.
But the family hadn't received this final verdict in writing. It didn't know whether or not it should rely on news given over the phone by a minor official.
So, Ms Chen wanted to hear from her father what he had been told.
"The first thing we asked was 'have you received your last verdict?' He said 'no'. I actually asked twice - 'did you receive any news?' He said 'no.'"
Wo Weihan did not appear to think that he was about to be executed.
"He again repeatedly told me that he is innocent. He said very clearly that he has confidence in the justice system of China."
After 30 minutes, the visit was over.
"After meeting with my dad we went home, and I cried for two hours and it was just so difficult and emotional. Because I thought that maybe by the time I got home maybe he was already executed. I didn't know. That's really what makes it very difficult for us. We don't get information."
A few hours later, the family got a call from the Austrian Embassy (Austria has been liaising with the Chinese government because Ms Chen has Austrian citizenship). A diplomat passed on the message that China had agreed to let the family visit Wo Weihan once more. The family doesn't yet know when this next visit will take place. But Ran Chen believes that it means the possibility of her father's immediate execution has receded.
For its part, the Chinese government has stated its position clearly.
"Wo Weihan is a Chinese citizen who broke Chinese law," a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said at a regularly scheduled briefing held in Beijing on Thursday afternoon, "We can't give privileges to him because he has foreign relatives."
Ran Chen argues that she does not want special privileges for her father. She says that she believes in the justice system in this country, but argues that his conviction for espionage is deeply flawed. She adds that she and her family intend to carry on fighting for her father's death sentence to be commuted.
- James Reynolds
- 25 Nov 08, 10:50 GMT
If the Chinese Communist Party is looking for a house band to play at one of its next study sessions, Guns N' Roses latest album probably won't be on the list. Chinese Democracy, you can be sure, will not be uploaded onto official Politburo iPods.
One newspaper editorial here says that the album venomously attacks China. When we mentioned the new album in a Chinese internet forum, the administrator quickly deleted the reference. The record hasn't been released in China - unofficially we've been told this is because the material is too sensitive. The album's official website Chinesedemocracy.com has also been blocked.
The Chinese government prefers a different kind of music. Before its press conferences, the Foreign Ministry in Beijing plays generically unthreatening acoustic guitar music over its loudspeakers. I asked the spokesman, Qin Gang, what he made of the new Guns N' Roses album.
"According to my knowledge, a lot of people don't like this kind of music - because it's too noisy, and too loud. James, I think you are a mature adult, aren't you?" he said (with what seemed to be a definite half-smile).
But if you look around a bit, you can find something even louder and more provocative than Guns N' Roses.
In a small bar on the Pacific coast, a Chinese heavy metal band called Ordnance perform their new album. The four band members perform with their backs to the audience of 40 or 50 people. Their songs go just as far - if not much further - than Guns N' Roses. The band attacks the Chinese police for not defending ordinary people, they criticise corruption and oppression in their own country.
"Take pride in freedom of speech," the band sings, "take pride in guaranteeing human rights, Take one party dictatorship as a disgrace."
This small band singing in a small bar can get away with saying things that would never be allowed anywhere else in this country. I wonder what they think of the American band thousands of miles away also singing about China.
"Guns N' Roses are in the US - they have never lived in China," says Ying Peng, the band's lead singer, "They don't really know what China is really like. They try to understand it in their way, but it's one-sided. I may like the music, the melody. But for lyrics, everyone thinks differently, and stands on a different side. It's a different place, different culture."
"If they came to China to tour, what would you say to them?" I ask.
"Though we're not on the same level band, we have the same spirit," says the guitarist Liu Li Xin, "The rebellious spirit is the same. We try to discover problems in societies. We respect Guns N' Roses, because they took notice of China's democracy. For that, they deserve our respect. But we do have the same attitude and spirit, hoping to make China better."
In the end which band will have the greater impact on China? The Americans performing in stadiums outside China? Or the four men in their own country yelling out their own concerns to their own people?
- James Reynolds
- 25 Nov 08, 08:56 GMT
You won't find it written down anywhere. The government would deny that it exists. But it's one of the first things that you learn about when you get to China. Everyone here understands it. And it helps to explain why the Communist Party has been able to stay in power.
It's The Deal - sometimes known as The Bargain or the Pact.
The Deal is an unspoken agreement between the Chinese government and its people. It was reached in the aftermath of the crushing of the Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989. It goes like this: the people leave the politics to the government; in return the government makes the people rich.
A crude way of looking at it is that the Communist Party has simply bought off its people with money and jobs. But there's more to it than that. For more than a century, until the late 1970s, China lived in almost constant chaos: a collapsing empire, foreign invasion and occupation, civil war, famine (any Chinese person over 35 can still remember some of those years). Many people here want a break from the anarchy they once knew. So, a more accurate way of seeing The Deal is this: everyone has agreed to leave behind years of chaos by focusing all of their efforts on the economy. Getting rich feels better than being hungry and anarchic.
For years, The Deal has governed how life works in China. Today's students haven't protested like their predecessors a generation ago partly because there have always been enough jobs for them when they graduate (and partly because they know that demonstrations end badly). Workers and farmers haven't risen up in mass revolt because the Party's given them the chance to escape from poverty. In other words, if you keep quiet and put your faith in the system, you can get a good life.
In recent years, there have been thousands of small-scale protests. But these demonstrations (or "incidents" as the government calls them) have been about localised issues (eg officials in a certain village have stolen money, or migrant workers on a specific project haven't been paid). Until now, there's been no one single issue for people to protest about.
But now, the world's financial crisis has hit China. As I wrote last week, many Chinese companies which export goods to the West have had to shut down. Migrant workers who left their villages to get jobs are now having to go back home to nothing. We've been getting word of more and more protests in different parts of the country. The government admits that the unemployment situation is "grim."
If hundreds of millions of farmers and migrant workers no longer feel that the government can give them a better life, the government runs into trouble.
Here's the thought that may keep China's leaders awake at night: No Jobs, No Deal.
- James Reynolds
- 21 Nov 08, 17:43 GMT
In the absence of crystal balls, tea leaves, or time machines, it's hard to know for sure what'll happen in the future. Some guesses turn out to be fantastically incorrect (remember the professor who declared that rail travel at high speed was impossible because passengers would be unable to breathe; or the mathematician who assured the world that heavier-than-air flying machines would never work).
Anyway, the fear of being wrong hasn't stopped anyone from predicting the future course of China.
Since the end of the Cold War in 1989, one school of thought has dominated the predictions made by China's chief rival, the United States: the belief that democracy is bound to come to China, because free trade leads to political freedom, and because the steady march of history favours freedom. Let's call this the history-says-freedom-will-come camp. It's been championed by the last two American presidents:
"I have told President Jiang that when it comes to human rights and religious freedom, China remains on the wrong side of history. Unlike some, I do not believe that increased commercial dealings alone will inevitably lead to greater openness and freedom. We must work to speed history's course."
- President Bill Clinton, Washington DC, 11 June 1998
"I'm optimistic about China's future. Young people who grow up with the freedom to trade goods will ultimately demand the freedom to trade ideas, especially on an unrestricted internet. Change in China will arrive on its own terms and in keeping with its own history and its own traditions. Yet change will arrive."
- President George W Bush, Bangkok, 7 August 2008
A pretty clear position, then. But there is another school of thought. Let's call this the don't-bet-on-it camp. This viewpoint argues that democracy in China isn't inevitable at all. It argues that free trade actually strengthens authoritarian regimes instead of bringing them down (this school of thought is vividly argued by the journalist James Mann in his book The China Fantasy). It looks like the don't-bet-on-it camp has had a say in the drafting of a new US Intelligence report which guesses what the world might look like in 2025 ...
"Other discontinuities are less predictable. They are likely to result from an interaction of several trends and depend on the quality of leadership. We put uncertainties such as whether China or Russia becomes a democracy in this category. China's growing middle class increases the chances but does not make such a development inevitable."
Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, US National Intelligence Council (published November 2008)
So, there are two competing viewpoints. The history-says-freedom-will-come camp believes/hopes that China will end up being powerful and democratic (ie - just like America). But the don't-bet-on-it camp suggests that China will be powerful and probably not democratic (ie - not like America). We wait for the position of the incoming Obama administration.
Setting the march/non-march of democracy aside, there is a consensus that China will get more and more powerful by 2025:
"China is poised to have more impact on the world over the next 20 years than any other country. If current trends persist, by 2025 China will have the world's second largest economy and will be a leading military power. It also could be the largest importer of natural resources and the biggest polluter."
Global Trends 2025: A Transformed World, US National Intelligence Council (published November 2008)
So, that's what the US thinks. But how does China see its own future?
In many ways, this country is still following a famous bit of advice given by Deng Xiaoping in 1991 as the Soviet Empire was breaking up. His advice is known as the "Twenty-four character directive":
"observing with a cool head, securing our position, dealing with the situation calmly, hiding our capacities and biding our time, being good at defense, and never being in the limelight"
(quoted in "China and the Legacy of Deng Xiaoping," by Michael E Marti)
In 2003, China's next set of leaders built on Deng's advice when they came up with a phrase designed to explain the country's re-emergence as a global power: "peaceful rise". In other words, we're not out to invade your country and make you all speak Chinese.
The Communist Party always likes to point out that China is still a developing country that still has a long way to go before it challenges or even overtakes the United States.
The figures show that China has a point. The two most immediate measures of any country's power are money and guns. At the moment the US economy is more than four times the size of China's. And the US spends about 10 times as much on its military than China does on its own armed forces. So, in terms of the power to spend and the power to shoot, the US is still a long way ahead.
But China does have its ambitions. It's clear that the country wants to assert its authority - particularly in East Asia. Politically, the country wants to make sure that the self-governing island of Taiwan doesn't declare independence. Economically, China is determined to protect its trade routes (a large percentage of China's imports comes through the Strait of Malacca between the Indian and Pacific Oceans).
The Communist Party believes that the best way to achieve its aims in this respect is to develop a strong navy. Recent reports suggest that China is keen to buy its first aircraft carrier. China's military ambitions worry some in the United States (I once interviewed a US Congressmen who compared China to the shark in Jaws). At some point in the future the two countries may jostle for position in the Pacific.
In the long term, China, the US, and other countries may also find themselves competing for and even fighting over resources. China's dramatic rise has been fuelled by raw materials provided by other countries - particularly those in Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. In order to keep on growing, China needs to keep on importing resources. So, what happens if everyone ends up chasing the same set of raw materials ?
The answer is that we don't know. As I said at the beginning of this post, predictions often turn out to be wrong. Remember that the US intelligence community predicted neither the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961 nor its collapse in 1989.
So, no one knows for sure what will happen in 2025. Unless, of course, you happen to have a time machine.
- James Reynolds
- 17 Nov 08, 10:56 GMT
I'm back in Beijing after a trip to southern China to have a look at how the global financial crisis is affecting this country.
Had a strange last morning in Shenzhen. The team and I were on our way to an interview at a toy factory. The traffic was jammed and people were standing by the side of the road. We saw a huge police convoy go by - dozens of motorbikes, several vans, and an armoured car right at the front.
None of us had ever seen this before in China - so we followed the convoy at a safe distance (we didn't want to repeat the experience of a colleague of mine in Jerusalem who once drove behind the Israeli prime minister's convoy and found several machine guns pointed straight at him from the rear vehicle).
We followed the convoy for a while (have a look at the photo) before peeling away. We asked local people if they knew why it was deployed - they told us they didn't know, that they'd never seen something like it before. It's entirely possible that the police were just moving vehicles from one place to another. But it does show that the authorities in this part of China have the resources to deal with social unrest if more people lose their jobs because of the world's financial crisis.
- James Reynolds
- 10 Nov 08, 08:50 GMT
Remember what they teach you in basic manners class: if you're invited to someone's house, don't turn up empty-handed.
China's president Hu Jintao is going to Washington in a few days for a summit to discuss the global financial crisis. Now he has something to show his hosts: a new economic plan.
The Chinese government has just announced a series of measures worth $586bn. The plan includes spending on infrastructure, housing, healthcare, and disaster relief. The measures are designed to make sure that China's economy keeps going - and that its people start spending.
Here's what makes the package necessary: the global downturn has begun to affect China. Put simply: since consumers in the West can no longer afford to buy as much, China can't sell as much. So, China's growth has dropped to 9% from over 10% a year ago. Exports have fallen. Factories have shut down. 67,000 small and medium businesses so far have gone bust this year.
Here's why all of this worries the government: fewer jobs means more social unrest. In recent weeks there've been reports of protests and marches by workers who've lost their jobs. More than anything else, the Communist Party hates instability.
So, the government will hope that its $586bn package helps out. It's something for Hu Jintao to discuss with his fellow world leaders when he gets to Washington.
PS. For those who've read my previous entry, Hu Jintao and Barack Obama have now actually spoken on the phone. They did so on Saturday.
- James Reynolds
- 5 Nov 08, 04:52 GMT
I've just been watching news of the Obama victory on Chinese TV (it's the second story here after an update on a trip to Taiwan by a senior Chinese official).
If you're Chinese, what do you think of Mr Obama's win? What will it mean for US-China relations?
UPDATE: Barack Obama's election victory is now attracting quite a bit of attention here. The main evening news led its programme with Mr Obama's win. Normally, the bulletin begins with pictures of Politburo members carrying out their latest activities - this usually means endless pictures of meetings held in cavernous rooms with loyal Party officials. But tonight, the first pictures in the bulletin were of Mr Obama's victory - that's very rare.
China's President Hu Jintao and the Premier Wen Jiabao have sent messages to Mr Obama congratulating him on his victory. The official statement doesn't make it clear how the messages were delivered to the president-elect (via telegram? On a silver tray?)
From what I can tell, it seems that neither man actually called Mr Obama on the phone. It may not matter that much, but I find it interesting to note that this is the way that China prefers to deal with foreign leaders - in a courtly, reserved fashion. The Communist Party prizes formality (perhaps as an antidote to the chaos that China once went through).
So Hu Jintao is unlikely to be the kind of person to start texting Barack Obama smiley faces.
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