Weekender: Xinhua demands WUC Self-Censorship

The latest about Rebiya Kadeer, according to Singapore’s Morning News, comes from Xinhua. Xinhua informs us that after the Shaoguan (韶关) incident of June 26, Kadeer made a phonecall to her deputy saying that the incident should be paid attention to, because it was a very good opportunity. The World Uyghur Congress (WUC) should immediately distort the facts on the internet and hype it all up. Also, the WUC-related East Turkistan Information Center should issue a statement, falsely saying that the Uyghurs were reduced to be the slaves of the Han nationality bosses who seriously exploited, humiliated and discriminated against them. The paragraph as written at Morning News suggests that Kadeer herself used the words incident, to distort, and hpye things up:

新华社指出，广东韶关6月26日发生了新疆籍员工和当地员工群殴事件后，世维会主席热比娅在电话中和世维会副主席塞依提·吐木吐鲁克说：“要重视这次事件，这是一个很好的机会。”世维会随即在网上歪曲事实并大肆炒作，包括世维会属下的东突信息中心发表声明，诬称“维吾尔族人沦为内地汉族老板的奴隶，遭受严重剥削、屈辱和歧视”。

So, to cut the long Xinhua story short, Kadeer made phonecalls, Uyghurs communicated on the Qing Feng Feng Website without being censored, and that in turn triggered the 7-15 incident.

Cracks aside, if this is enough to cause upheaval in China, Beijing’s position amounts to a demand for Western celf-censorship, so as not to disturb the harmonious and mutually respectful life of the country’s 56 nationalities.

This miserable plot, entitled by Morning News as “Xinhua discloses the process of WUC riot plans“ (but at least they still put the riot plans between quotation marks) wasn’t even good enough yet to be picked up by the English version of the Global Times (but there are scores of Chinese-language reports on Xinhua’s latest intelligence, of course).

Meantime, JR has to protest against the Global Times’ Forum. There is a call for the assassination of Rebiya Kadeer and the Dalai Lama!

A Chastened Patriot's Just Cause

Nothing against funny posts – but if Xinhua’s drivel proves Rebiya Kadeer  guilty of instigating murder, Saddam Hussein was in posession of wmd in 2002, and the Global Times is guilty of instigating murder in the United States, and in India.

AND DON’T TRY EVEN FOR A MOMENT TO TELL ME THAT THIS STUFF IS JUST A FOREIGNER#S POOR SATIRE!! jUSt ANOtheR  of your dEVIOuS PRETEXTS!!! you are WOrkIng HAND IN gLOVE!!

Next time some Maoists instigate car-wrecking activities in Berlin, I’ll accuse Beijing.

Zap zap jé

Tibetan Snow Lion (གངས་སེང་གེ་)

While Tsering Woeser isn’t attending the Frankfurt Bookfair, her book – published by Lungta in German this month – is there: “You have the Guns, I have a Pen”. It’s a keyboard, in fact. She started documenting the Tibetan riots of March 2008 as a blog. In Taiwan, this book was published by Fair Morning Publishing in March this year, under the Chinese title “Year of the Rat, Snow Lion’s Roar” (鼠年雪狮吼), or “The Snow-Lion Roaring in the Year of the Mouse”. The Taiwanese publisher’s website also describes Woeser’s blogging routine, and the routine of those who read, hate and vandalize it:

“On May 28 [2008], the “Red Hacker Alliance” – 红客联盟 (hong ke or red guest instead of the conventional hei ke or black guest) attacked her blog and replaced it with the PR-Chinese flag and national anthem and posted personal attacks and intimidations.”

The China Digital Times recorded this and other “ID hijackings” in 2008 as they happened.

Wang Lixiong (王力雄), Han-Chinese and married to Woeser, told an audience including the Dalai Lama in a theater in Washington D.C.’s Chinatown earlier this month that

“.. loving China does not amount to loving the government. Daring to criticize the government is done for the good of China, but a government that cannot accept criticism can only bring harm to China.”

Some time earlier, in September, while her husband was already travelling in the US, Woeser had been told by the state security that

“If you go on like this, you will run into a wall. When the time comes, nobody will help you. That applies for you, that also applies for Wang Lixiong. He’s now in America, but when he’s back, we’ll call on him as usual.”

Zap zap jé is Tibetan and apparently means “I beg you, be careful”. In a normal country, people like Wang and Woeser would be full members of a civil society. Nobody would spend a thought on how to harass them. Only few of their statements would make it into the headlines, because they are hard to disagree with.

But then, what’s normal in the PRC?
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Related:
“Ihr habt die Gewehre, ich einen Stift”, 看不见的西藏, Oct 15 2009
Snow Lion, Wikipedia, last ed. Oct 12; 16:05

Frankfurt: Big Daddy’s Latest Workings

Berlin, October 12.

German chancellor Angela Merkel, herself a physicist, will have a chance to learn something, now that Xi Jinping (习近平), China’s vice state chairman, has bestowed the latest technical expertise from China’s former state chairman Jiang Zemin (江泽民) on her. Xi and Merkel studied Chairman Jiang’s works in Berlin, on October 12.

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Frankfurt, October 14

The English versions of former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s two books, “On Development of China’s Information Technology Industry” (论中国信息技术产业发展) and “Research on China’s Energy Problem” (中国能源问题研究), also saw their international debut at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Wednesday. China Daily reported on Thursday that

Speaking to the debut ceremony, Leng Rong, director of Party Literature Research Center of the CPC Central Committee and one of the editors of the books, spoke highly of the books.
“These two books provide us with a systematic understanding about Mr. Jiang’s pondering as well as theoretical exploration and academic innovation on these issues, and help us learn about the development stages, strategic policies and measures of China’s IT and energy industries,” he said.
“Therefore, the two books are quite worth reading, especially for those caring about the development of China and even the world, for people interested in China as well as for experts and scholars on information technology and energy issues,” he added.

And Liu Binjie (柳斌杰), Director and party chief of China’s General Administration of Press and Publication of the People’s Republic of China (中国国家新闻出版), conveyed Li Changchun’s and vice chairman Xi Jinping’s – the two members of the Politburo’s Standing Committee who are in charge of ideological work – warm congratulations on the debut of these books. He told his listeners that the books offered important guidance to the development strategies and policies of China’s information technology and energy industries.

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But even the CPC won’t believe that Jiang Zemin’s latest works will solve the world’s energy problems. Singapore’s Morning News (联合早报) points out that Jiang Zemin is back in the news, in politics, and pretty much on television, as coverage of the PRC’s 60th anniversary had shown. So the Xi-Merkel study-the-latest-works-of-comrade-Jiang study group in Berlin was basically Xi’s signal to his audience at home: Xi and Jiang are close (习、江关系密切的信号).

The Asia Sentinel has a far more dramatic interpretation of Jiang Zemin’s unexpected resurgence. Certainly, if Jiang carries such weight within China’s collective leadership, it does look like bad news for China’s unprivileged people, and promises a wonderful party for the princelings and minions. And if that is a threat to stability, then yes, then it’s bad news for political stability, too. But then, Hu Jintao’s and Wen Jiabao’s endeavors for a fairer society don’t look like a success story yet, and in terms of nepotism, Hu and his surroundings don’t look unsuspicious either. If a Xi Jinping party-and-state chairmanship – only after 2012, of course – would really spell that much more social trouble remains to be seen.

A more interesting, but not too convincing paragraph, quoting a party source:

… the main reason why, after the July 5 bloodbath in Urumqi, Hu had to scurry back to China on the eve of the Group of Eight summit in Italy was to prevent Jiang from “trouble-making.” For example, Jiang had all along told a few Politburo Standing Committee members that Hu’s scorched-earth policies in Xijiang and Tibet would fail.

Jiang, the benevolent emperor, opposing Hu-the-terrible’s scorched-earth policies? Hard to believe. Maybe Big Daddy did stirr trouble in July, too, but hardly with such an Uyghur-friendly (or harmonious) kind of argument. The news that Jiang has evidently amassed a thick pile of “black materials” – or harmful dossiers – against Hu and his Communist Youth League clique doesn’t look important either. Collecting black materials must be an important part of every CPC official’s daily work, and the Hu camp certainly has something to share about Jiang Zemin or Xi Jinping, too. Nobody in the CPC brotherhood is going to rock the boat and risk stability with exposing each others’ mortal sins.

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But it is surely evident that Xi Jinping needs Big Daddy’s continued favor.

No wonder that the CCP didn’t complain for too long about the Frankfurt Book Fair being utilized. The Fair is everybody’s stage.

Caijing’s Professional Pride

The first issue of Caijing published an influential report: who is responsible for Qionmin Yuan (琼民源)? [For the Qiongminyuan case, see second paragraph, Caijing's "About Us"] It was one of the critical reports people talked about. Next, Caijing exposed many cases of stock market manipulation, and other problems of economic concern, such as the Junan scandal [1996/1998, the case of Zhang Guoqing], shady funds, the Guangxia Trap, [...] and so on. Of course, there was a lot of pressure, also from interest groups. The right of the public to be informed is much greater than any historic mission the interest groups may claim to have.

Reportedly from an article written by Hu Shuli, Caijing Magazine’s (财经) incumbent editor-in-chief, originally published by China News Weekly (中国新闻周刊), October 9, 2009

In a land where independent journalism is rare, Caijing is known for exclusive reporting. Its first cover story focused on Qiong Min Yuan, a real estate company that lied about its profits. The company was penalized for insider trading, but not before 50,000 small investors lost millions of dollars. The story was swept under the rug by China’s official media. Only Caijing dared to break the silence.

Caijing Magazine website, “About Us”.

Related:
Resignations at Caijing Magazine, October 13, 2009
Reform without Zijiren, October 5, 2009

Yuan Weijing: A Few Words about a Long Story of Abuse

Chen Guangcheng (陈光诚), an activist and advisor on legal affairs for “common people”, was sentenced to four years and three months in 2006, apparently for “destruction of property and assembling a crowd to disrupt traffic”. On the occasion of the 26th Interntional Day of the Blind, Chen’s wife Yuan Weijing – her husband is blind – wrote a letter describing her husband’s current life, and her own.

Under the Jacaranda has posted an English translation of her letter, and a link to the Chinese original.

Hu Shuli “likely to leave”

China Daily quotes two anonymous sources as saying that Caijing Magazine‘s (财经) editor-in-chief Hu Shuli (胡舒立) “is also likely to leave”.  However, public relations manager Zhang Xianghui (probably aka Heidi Zhang) told the paper that that the reshuffle so far is normal and has not involved Hu or the editorial department.

With a circulation of about 225,000 copies, Caijing is a major money-maker for the Hong Kong-listed SEEC Media Group, writes China Daily. Caijing is managed by the SEEC (Stock Exchange Executive Council, 中國證券市場研究設計中心), according to Wikipedia.

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Related: Resignations at Caijing Magazine, October 13, 2009

Woeser and the Frankfurt Book Fair: In Writing, but not in Person

Tibetan author Tsering Woeser isn’t attending the Frankfurt Book Fair because the Chinese authorities denied her an international passport, reports the Voice of Germany (Deutsche Welle). Her books care published in Hong Kong and Taiwan – she sends them to the publishers by e-mail -, and are presented in Frankfurt.

Afghanistan Newsflash

Afghanistan, black market

German military pistols on sale on Afghanistan’s black market may be no coincidence, but cold-blooded scheme, reports Taide.