Anecdotal Evidence: why there can be no Chinese Soft Power – and why Cooperation with Beijing may Corrupt us

Messages from Beijing are in conflict with each other when the Dalai Lama – and the degree to which he may become internationally noticeable – is the issue. On the one hand, the Dalai Lama doesn’t belong in Tibet, from Beijing’s point of view. He therefore doesn’t belong in China either. On the other hand, Beijing reacts angrily when the Dalai Lama “denies his Chinese citizenship”. And the Chinese leadership seems to suggest that it has a say in foreign leaders’ appointment diaries.

The Dalai Lama is quite powerless, but a discussion with him is probably much more enriching than one with Hu Jintao, Jackie Chan, or Zhang Ziyi.

That’s one of the problems with Chinese “soft power”, I guess. Whatever could be a factor in building such power is either in exile, or (mostly) silent.

But above all, it is childish when Chinese authorities condemn meetings with people outside their jurisdiction. And when Chinese editorialists who take their orders from those authorities demand that “hosting Dalai Lama must come at a high price”, there are two obvious objections. For one, David Cameron and Nick Clegg apparently met the Dalai Lama at St. Paul’s Cathedral. Downing Street didn’t host him. But above all, a nexus between economic cooperation with China and “hosting the Dalai Lama”, as advocated by the “Global Times”, shows how shaky the foundations of our economic cooperation with China actually are.

Maybe we should think about our own reasons to limit cooperation with China. Because one day, we might feel that we can’t “afford” certain values and views of our own anymore. Other governments have come to such misguided conclusions already.

Helping Dissidents: When People Die for Wealth, and Birds Die for Food

Main Link: He Qinglian’s BBC article

He Qinglian is a Chinese economist and author who has lived in the U.S. since 2001. In an article published by the BBC‘s Chinese website (last updated on May 9, 2012) [ this account of it based on the May-7 updated version], she argues that in terms of national interest, America is rather selling benefits, than gaining them, to act in accordance with its values. There was no economic benefit to be gained by focusing on human-rights issues in its talks with China. Accusations that America was using human rights issues as a “tool” to serve its national interest, as claimed both by the CCP and by a number of dissidents, too, therefore made no sense.

It’s the case of Chen Guangcheng and his family which prompted her article. But her advice on how to help with human-rights issues goes beyond the current situation.

The efficiency of Metternich-style diplomacy had become very limited, she writes. Global decisions sought by America depended on China’s cooperation, and Europe was busy with its sovereign debt crisis (and was seeking cooperation from China, too). America’s best diplomatic “weapon” now was to apply its “soft power”, to influence China by persuasion (劝说, quànshuō) and by exchange of benefits. Otherwise, the inevitable result of situations like the current one was international humiliation of China – it would either turn a deaf ear to the matter, or fight back.

The idea that America “used human right criticism as a tool to pursue its national interests” had been an educational and propaganda line which had become deeply rooted in China – a country with a popular saying of “peole die for wealth, and birds die for food” (人为财死，鸟为食亡). CCP propaganda which kept using the concept of natonal interest was therefore highly efficient, exactly for the situation as it was at home, within China.

He Qinglian sums up why, she believes, the American-Chinese talks didn’t get derailed while secretary of state Hilary Clinton was in Beijing:

I don’t believe that China could be inspired by American soft power, and I can only guess what China got [from America] so that the good “partnership” continued.

Taking refuge in the American embassy was therefore – probably – no regular approach Chinese dissidents could take, writes He Qinglian. Each of them would have to seek international help in some ways, to different extents, in accordance with their individual situations.

One may agree or disagree with her, but I seem to sense the soulsearching and the trouble she felt when writing her article. One of the commenters underneath, under the pseudonym of Grief and Resentment (哀怨人), commenting from the U.S., suggests that there is a kind of helplessness (一种无奈感) in it.

Basically, if anything, He Qinglian seems to endorse the U.S. State Department’s approach, rather than calls from Capitol Hill, from news comments and elsewhere, to do more than what has been done so far.

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Related

» A Division of Labor that Can’t Work, Febr 23, 2010
» He Qinglian about Deutsche Welle (interview in German), Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Nov 11, 2008

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Bo Xilai planned the Third World War

OK, maybe not. But he (or Wang Lijun, or whoever) wiretapped everyone, up to the collective leader Hu Jintao himself, “nearly half a dozen” (i. e. 5.9, I guess?) CCP officials people with party ties claim, as quoted by the New York Times. And the British government is soooo happy that the rule of law applies in China, and that the Heywood case is re-investigated. OK, not quite that, either – he welcomes Neil Heywood death investigation.

My theory is that Bo Xilai shagged Sarah Palin, conspired with the Nazis on the dark side of the moon, and that they will soon abduct him so that he can’t reveal their schemes.

We will never see Bo Xilai again. That’s almost for sure.

Update - Update - Update: JR Intelligence Unit spotted Bo in Syria in what appears to be an extraordinary rendition arrangement between Beijing and Damascus.

Good Ganbu’s Lessons from Kim Jong-un: Giggle Often

Good Ganbu: Giggle Often

Comrades:

Comrade Kim Jong-un and his elders heeded your advice. Now it is our turn to learn from them. Granted, we can’t assess yet if only the BBC‘s correspondent in Seoul (she’s still a teenager, I think) got so carried away was so impressed, or if this is an impact on the foreign media at large.

As we can see, it just may be very easy to impress journalists from foreign lands. This is my confidential advice for Comrade Xi Jinping., from next year on.

Make “a real departure” from Comrade Hu Jintao‘s style:

• give live, public speeches on Tian An Men Square
• say some familiar and some new things
• laugh and joke in-between taking your first salutes as chairman
• as you can’t talk about belts not to be tightened any longer, as our motherland is already very prosperous, harp on financial / banking reform instead
• bolster your stand with the people  – OK, maybe not – someone else tried that just recently)
• Hug the soldiers and workers, test their beds and food
• literally giggle behind your hand to some of your comrades on the stage
• show a new flavor, a new warmth

Haole, maybe this BBC report wasn’t indicative for foreign media, but there are lessons for us to learn. Trust me, your old Comrade with all the Yan’an experience. Remember Chairman Mao’s wonderful jokes. Remember Comrade Zhou Enlai‘s convivial people-to-people diplomacy, and how he and his wife made Shirley MacLaine cry. And mention Mikhail Gorbachev once in a while, but only behind closed doors with foreign leaders.

But don’t be too nice at home. Understand that there is an international public, and a domestic public. Each side wants to be fooled served in its own ways.

And don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t work at once. Chairman Mao even impressed Kissinger, didn’t he?

Hao Ganbu

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Related

» A Return to Kim Il Sung’s Style, Times of India, April 15, 2012
» More Mirrors at the Barber’s, Voice of Korea, March 4, 2012

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Bo Xilai, Gu Kailai: one Couple, two Investigations

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1. Authorized Release

Authorized Release – CCP Central Committee decides to file an investigation of [the / an] question / issue about Comrade Bo Xilai having seriously violating discipline

授权发布：中共中央决定对薄熙来同志严重违纪问题立案调查

Xinhua, Beijing, April 10 – In view of suspicions that Comrade Bo Xilai seriously violated discipline, the Central Committee has decided to suspend his posts at the politbureau and at the Central Committee, based on “the CCP constitution” and “the CCP disciplinary investigation bodies’ working regulations”, and to have the central disciplinary investigation commission file an investigation.

鉴于薄熙来同志涉嫌严重违纪，中央决定，依据《中国共产党章程》和《中国共产党纪律检查机关案件检查工作条例》的有关规定，停止其担任的中央政治局委员、中央委员职务，由中共中央纪律检查委员会对其立案调查。

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2. Unauthorized, maybe

The Central Committee has decided to file an investigation of [the / an] question / issue about Bo Xilai having seriously violating discipline. There is also news that Bo Xilai’s wife, Gu Kailai, is suspected of murder of an Englishman, Neil Wood [...] [Neil Heywood, also frequently written  尼尔·海伍德 in Chinese]

中央决定对薄熙来严重违纪问题立案调查。同时有消息表明，薄熙来的妻子谷开来涉嫌杀害了英籍男子尼尔﹒伍德，[...]

http://blog.people.com.cn/open/articleFine.do?articleId=1334076639224&sT=1

Click picture for larger version

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Click picture for larger version

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The translated bits of the post are still available on Google’s search results (Wednesday morning). As the People’s Daily blogpost in full isn’t online any more, it would be hard to tell why it was actually taken down. It probably wasn’t because of the allegation that Gu Kailai is suspected of murder, as this information is available elsewhere on the Chinese internet.

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Related

» Gu Kailai arrested, The Telegraph, April 10, 2012
» Cultural Revolutions, great and small, April 1, 2012
» Between Negation and Affirmation, March 25, 2012

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Update/Related

» The Last Two Acts (fictional, probably, hopefully), King Tubby, April 11, 2012
» People’s Daily: Verdict on Day One, April 11, 2012

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Sunday Link Collection: Deutsche Welle under the Tyranny of Sina Weibo, and other Subtle Things

Deutsche Welle (Voice of Germany) has secured placement for a range of lifestyle and culture programs on four Chinese video portals, Kim Andrew Elliot wrote on March 14, quoting a March-12 Worldscreen report. Their videos are reportedly to be found on v.huanqiu.com, youku.com, tudou.com and ku6.com, who chose, among others, Chinese editions of Global Ideas and Future Now.

No indication that any of these programs will be translated into Chinese,

notes Elliot, and given that they are distributed via portals rather than television channels would probably also limit their audience potential.

It seems that Deutsche Welle, just like any other portal user, upload some of their videos there – this video from the fashion category, like most or all the others, comes without Chinese subtitles, and another, from the education category,  informs the German-speaking Chinese netizen that German schools’ realities are poisoned by cyber terror. The two videos haven’t got either “likes” or “dislikes” yet. The Deutsche Welle channel does have 177 fans, however. Uploads of January have been watched between seven and 82 times respectively (the latter one is Test it! Porsche). A Porsche’s language wouldn’t need translation anyway, and besides, that video is in English.

Unfortunately, Deutsche Welle seems to be facing poisoned realities of their own, on the Chinese internet. They had to reincarnate on their Sina-Weibo account in November last year, Oiwan Lam reported on Global Voices. Germany’s voice abroad – reportedly – raged about the tyranny of Sina, and their reincarnation statement in question (as linked to by Mrs. Lam) isn’t available anymore, either:

Sina Weibo: not even real-name registration can save you

Or maybe Deutsche Welle themselves deleted that micro post, seeing the uselessness of such undignified complaints.

Try shortwave, Deutsche Welle. Try shortwave.

Public Diplomacy, Networks and Influence picked up some remarks by British Council chief executive Martin Davidson, about Confucius Institutes:

[The Chinese] want to change the perception of China — to combat negative propaganda with positive propaganda. And they use the word ‘propaganda’ in Chinese. But I doubt they have to say, ‘We’ll only give you this money if you never criticize China.’ The danger is more of self-censorship — which is a very subtle thing.

Meantime, the BBC suspects Iran of a cyber-attack, and linked that to Iran’s efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.

OK – when it’s about Iran, you can still call them out, especially when you are the Beeb. But either way, if you want to build a nicer and fairer world, you’ll need to choose your enemies carefully, and make sure that they are of a manageable size. Die Welt, a German daily (including a Sunday edition) apparently understands that. On January 2, 2012, an author there explained why George W. Bush was right after all, and that Iran and North Korea are indeed an axis of evil. This is the article’s conclusion:

Of course, regime change must not always be put into practice by military means, but Bush is right with his diagnosis: dictatorships remain dictatorships, evil and hostile. One must not tolerate them, but fight them with all means. Especially Iran and North Korea.

Natürlich dürfen die Wege zum Regimewechsel nicht immer nur militärische sein. Bush hat aber recht mit der Diagnose: Diktaturen bleiben Diktaturen, böse und feindselig. Man darf sie nicht tolerieren, sondern muss sie mit allen Mitteln bekämpfen. Besonders den Iran und Nordkorea.

With all means – you can read here how the press can do its share to fight evil dictatorships.

And you can read here why, maybe, they should resist that temptation to “fight”. It is, in fact, a very old story.

The China Cultural Year 2012, Helmut Schmidt, and the Korean War

A guest post by Tai De

Ghost Hour: If you want to turn a German audience on, bring on the Great Philosophers (by JR, click pic for more)

Helmut Schmidt, on a “dialog” event with Gu Xuewu and Frank Sieren, in Berlin on January 31, funded by the Körber Foundation, the Bosch Foundation, and the Bertelsmann Foundation:

Commodities – there is no indication so far that China would try to get access to raw materials by military means. There aren’t any. Maybe with the exception of two archipelagos in the South China Sea – maybe. But there, too, this hasn’t led to military imbroglio so far. I believe that Hu Jintao, or the prime minister, too, are very aware of admiral Zheng He’s example, and I believe that their foreign policy – since Mao’s death, but even during the time under Mao – has been extremely cautious. They only intervened in the Korean war – half a century ago – when the Americans had almost reached the Yalu River. They were at war with India, but withdrew on their own initiative – undefeated. They intervened vis-a-vis Pol Pot and the Vietnamese, but withdrew, undefeated. That’s something one could suggest to the Americans as a role model, if one wanted to.

Die Rohstoffe – bisher gibt es kein Zeichen dafür, dass China irgendwo mit militärischer Gewalt sich Zugang zu Rohstoffen verschafft hat. Gibt es nicht. Vielleicht mit Ausnahme des Streits über zwei Inselgruppen im Südchinesischen Meer – das mag sein. Aber auch da hat es bisher nicht zu militärischen Verwicklungen geführt. Ich denke, dass Hu Jintao oder der Premierminister sich des Beispiels des Admirals Zheng He durchaus bewusst sind, und ich denke, dass ihre Außenpolitik seit dem Tode Maos – aber es gilt sogar für die Zeit unter Mao – außerordentlich vorsichtig gewesen ist. Sie haben in dem koreanischen Krieg, heute vor einem halben Jahrhundert, erst eingegriffen, als die Amerikaner beinahe schon am Yalu standen. Sie haben einen Krieg mit Indien geführt, aber sie haben sich selber zurückgezogen – unbesiegt zurückgezogen. Sie haben interveniert gegenüber Pol Pot und gegenüber den Vietnamesen, und haben sich unbesiegt zurückgezogen. Das ist etwas, was man den Amerikanern als Vorbild hinstellen könnte, wenn man wollte.

About half a year ago, I drafted a written history test for 10th-graders. It looked like this…

History Test

Assignments

1. Analyse the material (A. and B.), and put the sources into a chronological order.

2. Interpret material under B.

2.1. What are the poster’s intention?

2.2. Put the American intervention in the Korea war into a context with U.S. post-1945 foreign policy

3. Give your view on whether United-Nations military interventions are justified. Argue to the point.

Material A

Nikita Kruschev (secretary of the central committee of the CPSU from 1949 to 1953) describes Stalin’s, Mao Zedong’s, and North-Korean ruler Kim il-Sung’s opinions concerning the political situation on the eve of the hostilities on the Korean peninsula:

Kim returned home; after he had drafted the plan, he came back to Moscow and told Stalin that he was absolutely sure that his plan would be successful. I remember Stalin having certain misgivings. He wondered about possible American intervention, but we tend to believe that an American intervention could be avoided, if hostilities would be finalised rather early, and Kim il-Sung was convinced that there would be a quick victory.”

(Stalin consulted Mao Zedong)

“Mao had no objections either. He was positive about Kim il-Sung’s suggestion and reckoned that the Americans would not intervene, as the war was an inner-Korean matter, to be decided by the Korean people itself.”

Quoted after “Sowjetische Außenpolitik seit 1945″, Stuttgart 1985, p. 33 f., quoted in “Geschichte und Geschehen”, Vol. G4, Lower Saxony, Ernst Klett Schulbuchverlag, Leipzig 1999, p. 172.

Material B

“The justified noose awaits them!”

Now I’m wondering… do I have to re-draft the test, next time?

Deutsche Welle: “On the Road to Success with Farsi”

The following is a translation from German.

Main Link: http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,15661633,00.html

DW, February 3, 2012

Some 70 per cent of Iranians are less than 30 years old. For the future development of the country, they are crucial. Deutsche Welle gets through to them with multi-media choices in the Persian language (Farsi).

Interactive and mobile choices, and increasingly videos – reports as well as commentary – mark the www.dw.de/persian website. The Farsi department also counts increasingly on apps and social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Radio, particularly on shortwave, is hardly used among Deutsche Welle’s mostly young target audience in Iran. Therefore, in fall 2011, linear broadcast of the Persian radio program was terminated. For almost fifty years, they had been on the air from Germany.

The team around department director Jamsheed Faroughi works multi-medially and consists of about fourty members. Their coverage from and about Iran is mostly based on Persian-speaking correspondents. Add informants from all regions of the country, among them speakers of political groups, local journalists and bloggers, human-rights advocates and activists like Nobel-Peace-Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi.

The internet choice in Persian language is one of Deutsche Welle’s most successful ones. The website has been blocked in Iran several times, since 2009. However, users in the country are familiar with technical loop ways to load the pages anyway.

Deutsche Welle’s television program can only be received by satellite in Iran. Officially, however, satellite dishes are banned in Iran. Broadcast of DW programs over Hotbird 8 has been bugged repeatedly and selectively by the Iranian government. The signals were localized in Tehran’s immediate vicinity. Voice of America and BBC broadcasts were also affected.

Voice of Germany - we are enthused! (IRIB Tehran QSL, 1986)

Target Groups

Iran’s population is very young – some 70 per cent of the people are under 30 years old. For the political, economic and social development of the country, future multipliers are crucial. They are also those who, in the medium term, will determine public opinion formation. They are therefore our most important target audience. They are not only young, but also better educated, and partly have good English language skills. They mostly live in metropolises and bigger cities. Cosmopolitism, interest for the Western lifestyle, and rejection of fundamentalist tendencies within Islam are their characteristics. Internet and mobile phones go without saying, modern ways of communication such as blogs and texting are part of their everyday life.

Main Topics

Comprehensive, objective information from Iran and the entire region are at the center of our Farsi programs. In addition to current political news they include topics from science, technology, the environment, culture, lifestyle and sports.

There is great interest in Germany among the target groups in Iran. Above all, general information about our country and life and work in Germany are in high demand.

Iran as a Media Market

Intense competition and strong state censorship mark the Iranian media market. On the Reporters without Borders ranking, the country is on position 175, among 178 countries. All television and radio stations are controlled by the state [in the state's hand - in staatlicher Hand]. Commercial newspapers are also closely regulated; during the past years, many renowned papers have been closed down.
Technical metropolitan development is far advanced. Practically every household has television and radio, plus internet access. Television is the main medium for current information. Nationwide, some twelve million Iranians out of 70 million have internet access, according to offical statistics, and the trend is rising. One way to access the internet are internet cafes, between 1,500 and 3,000 in Tehran alone. Particularly active users are multipliers: more than twenty per cent are online on a daily basis. Internet and above all the Iranian blogosphere play a significant role in the dissemination of uncensored information. According to estimates, there are between 50,000 and 100,000 bloggers in the country – frequently journalists and authors, who are affected by state censorship on the established media, and who therefore switch to the internet.

The government, too, tries to use the internet for propaganda. At the same time, it relies on restrictive measures. Internet providers are bound to use content filters which block undesired content and pages. Digit rates for private households have been limited to make use of audio-visual content more difficult. Currently, the government plans to build the internet into a “national intranet”. Censorship doesn’t only affect political content. Generally, programs and media choices in contradiction to the government’s concept of culture are banned. These regulations have recently been tightened.

Satellite dishes remain officially banned. On and off, the government cracks down on them, as many people evade the ban. More than 30 television channels in Farsi are courting the Iranian public from abroad.
There is a lack of reliable information about current affairs. Better-educated Iranians in particular feel a strong need for objective accounts from abroad.

Besides choices from publicly-financed foreign broadcasters, numerous non-public television and radio stations broadcast into Iran. Most of them are operated by exiled Iranians from the U.S. and from Europe. Their political and economic interests are hard to look through.

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Related

» The Persian Paradox, FOARP, January 27, 2012
» DW targets “Opinion Leaders”, May 20, 2011

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