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The case of Zhu Hong (祝红), one of the four journalists who lost her contract with the foreign broadcaster’s Chinese department in 2010/2011, will be heard at Germany’s Federal Labor Court in Erfurt, on Thursday morning (June 20).
The case of her colleague Wang Fengbo (王凤波) is expected to be heard in December this year, also at the Federal Labor Court.
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Related
» When your Employer suspects…, Feb 18, 2012
» Chronological link collection, Feb 3, 2012
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The Voice of Pujiang (浦江之声) in Shanghai has abandoned shortwave on May 2, 2013, according to an email sent by the station’s Victor Qian quoted here. The station’s target area was Taiwan.
Broadcasting to China and to the world: Radio Taiwan International Tainan Shortwave Broadcasting Site (RTI QSL card)
Apparently more controversially, shortwave broadcasts from Taiwan for Chinese audiences are also scrapped. The following is a Radio Free Asia‘s (RFA) article by Lee Tung (李潼), on April 25, 2013, and it uses the term CBS (Central Broadcasting System) rather synonymously with that of Radio Taiwan International (RTI), the foreign-broadcasting section of CBS:
“Sound of Hope”, a privately-run radio station with Falun-Gong background, commissioned Taiwan’s Central Broadcasting System (CBS) with broadcasting its programs to mainland China. But under high-level adjustments of policies within CBS, it appears that in future, shortwave activities will be phased out.
具有法轮功背景的民营电台「希望之声」，从二零零四年起出资委託台湾中央广播电台向中国大陆播送。但最近却传出央广高层正进行政策调整，未来恐怕逐步取消短波播音业务。
During the years of the cold war last century, with financial and technical assistance from the U.S., CBS built a huge broadcasting network. The shortwave signals covered the entire mainland Chinese territory. These callsigns are probably no strangers to the older members of the mainland Chinese public who were used to listening to “CBS” and the “Voice of Free China”.
在上世纪冷战期间，台湾中央广播电台通过美国的经费和技术援助，建立了规模极为庞大的播音网络。短波信号能涵盖中国大陆全境。年纪稍长，习惯收听台湾广播的大陆民众，对于「中央广播电台，自由中国之声，在台湾发音」的这段台呼，想必都不陌生。
After the end of the cold war, CBS started carrying clients’ broadcasts on shortwave. In 2004, “The Sound of Hope” started broadcasting through CBS. During the time of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in government, this cooperation rapidly rose from two hours a day to twenty hours daily. Sound of Hope became the biggest client of CBS.
随着冷战结束，央广开始为出资的客户代播短波节目。二零零四年「希望之声」开始通过央广向大陆播音。民进党执政时期，这项合作业务从每天两小时快速成长到二十小时，希望之声也成为央广最大客户。
But news has recently emerged that reforms of the CBS transmission site could soon end this cooperation. Sound of Hope president Zeng Yong went to Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan on Thursday [i. e. on April 25, apparently] to petition the DPP’s legislator Liu Jianguo.
但这项代播业务近来却传出可能随着央广重整发射台而结束。希望之声总裁曾勇星期四到了台湾立法院，向关注本案的民进党籍立法委员刘建国陈情。
In an interview with this station [i. e. Radio Free Asia], Zeng Yong explained the value of shortwave broadcasts to the Chinese public. He said that people in totalitarian countries were the most obvious listeners to shortwave broadcasts, because when they distrusted information provided by the government, they could only rely on shortwave broadcasts. June-4 was an excellent example for this. At that time [1989], the impression was that the entire country listened to the “Voice of America”.
曾勇接受本台访问时说明了短波广播对中国民众的价值。他说，短波广播先天存在的听众就是极权国家的人民，因为他们对政府提供的信息天然不信任，这时只能依赖短波广播。六四就是一个最好的例子，那时的印象甚至是「全中国都在听美国之音」。
Zeng Yong said that when the KMT returned to power [in Taiwan] in 2008, there was no way for Sound of Hope to increase their airtime further, and instead, they were asked to cut their airtime by half. Only mobilization of public opinion and great efforts narrowly kept up the status quo. But this year, an intentional division of branch transmitters and equipment was gradually phasing the shortwave broadcasts out. Once this point was reached, all broadcasts – those of CBS and its clients alike – would all come to an end.
曾勇说，二零零八年国民党重返执政后，央广代播希望之声的时段不仅无法再增加，零九年甚至被要求砍掉一半。经过发动舆论、极力争取才勉强保住。而今年，再传出央广高层有意藉着整併分台土地和设施，逐步取消短波播音。届时不管是自製或代播，一概停止。
The authority in charge of CBS is the ministry of culture. Minister of culture Lung Ying-tai explained the CBS policies on broadcasts to mainland China to the Legislative Yuan during question time on Thursday [again, this should be April 25]. She said that there was no intention to halt broadcasts to mainland China, and on the contrary, communicatons with mainland China should be strengthened.
央广的上级单位为文化部，部长龙应台周四在立法院备询时，说明了央广对中国大陆的播音政策。她说，对中国大陆的广播没有要喊停，反而是要加强和大陆的沟通。
But reporters continued to ask if the current amount of airtime and client airtime was or wasn’t being reduced. Lung Ying-tai replied that this issue was part of “technical issues”, and therefore part of the planning carried out by CBS itself. The ministry of culture’s only concern was the policy, and the policy was that broadcasts to China should only be increased, not reduced.
但记者进一步追问，现有的短波广播和代播的时数会不会减少。龙应台回答，这部份属于「技术问题」由央广自行规划，文化部只管政策。而政府的政策是：对大陆广播只能增加不能减少。
Lung Ying-tai’s argument of only taking care of the policy and not asking for details can hardly put the minds at Sound of Hope at ease. Sound of Hope says that there was news that reducing Sound of Hope’s airtime was a request from Beijing, made in meetings between high-level CCP and KMT officials. There was evidence: during the frequency-changing period [i. e. usually every year, late in March and October], CBS had asked to abandon frequencies one by one, and every time, precisely those frequencies were taken by Beijing.
龙应台「只管政策，不问细节」的说法，让希望之声方面难以安心。他们表示有消息指出，缩减希望之声时段是来自北京当局通过国共两党的高层互访平台，向央广管理阶层提出的要求。证据是，在这一波变动中，央广一度要求先删减某个频道的时段，而这个频道，恰恰对正的就是北京。
Lung Ying-tai said that in her opinion, there was a lot of “blockage” of traditional broadcasting methods. CBS should therefore develop new media, as this would broaden contacts and reduce the effects of being blocked.
龙应台同时指出，她认为传统的传播方式，有很大的「被屏蔽」的问题。所以央广应该试着去开发新媒体，能让接触面更广，让被屏蔽的效果减低。
Zeng Yong disagrees. He says that the internet’s digital signals can be shut, while this is can’t be effectively done when it comes to shortwave. The penetration power of shortwave is very strong. The support for and protection of shortwave should be part of Taiwan’s own security policies.
对于龙应台认为传统的短波电台容易被屏蔽，曾勇表示了不同的看法。他说，以电台和互联网相比较，互联网使用的数字信号是可以关闭的。但短波是无法有效关闭的，它的渗透力极强。对于短波广播的支持和保护，应该是对台湾本身的安全维护政策的一部分。
Opinions on the importance of shortwave differ. There is no evidence that shutting the Voice of Pujiang’s shortwave transmissions down is in any way connected to the (apparent) Taiwanese moves, concerning shortwave. But it should be an educated guess that Sound of Hope has more listeners in China, than Voice of Pujiang ever had in Taiwan.
It is also obvious that Beijing takes Sound of Hope‘s (希望之声) broadcasts very serious. On most days, you would find a frequency where Sound of Hope can be listened to in Europe – but once in a while, the signals get completely drowned in Chinese music – a rather tuneful way of jamming. Example here:
You can hear the jamming station’s output rise after 35 seconds into the recording, and the “alternative” program, Chinese folk music known as “Firedrake” (火龙干扰) sets in after one minute. (Recorded in northern Germany in June, 2011.)
And while the short-range effects of jamming are often more limited than across long distances, Beijing appears to believe that jamming justifies quite a budget.
According to reports by the Epoch Times, reportedly a Falun-Gong-affiliated paper, Sound of Hope received a notice that dismantling of one of CBS / Radio Taiwan International’s shortwave transmitter sites, Huwei substation in Yunlin County, would begin ahead of schedule, on June 1. Sound of Hope broadcasts from there would therefore be discontinued at the end of May. Tianma substation (天馬台) in Tainan (台南) would be dismantled a few months later. Also according to the Epoch Times, it was RTI high-level executives (be it in addition to or instead of the high-level KMT members mentioned in the above RFA report) whose visit to mainland China was – supposedly – linked with the decision to phase out shortwave.
Radio Taiwan International (RTI, the foreign broadcasting section of CBS) usually uses relay transmitters in Britain and France for its broadcasts to Europe. However, once in a while – once a year or less -, European listeners get the opportunity to listen to broadcasts directly from Tainan, on 9955 kHz. RTI’s German service apparently told its listeners on a club gathering in Gaggenau-Ottenau in May this year that saving measures were due at RTI. Replying to a request from a listener in Hamburg that there would be another direct broadcast this year, one of the hosts told the audience in a mailbag show on Friday night that RTI’s German service might broadcast directly from Tainan later this year, as had frequently been done in previous years. However, this wasn’t yet certain, and if there should be another direct shortwave transmission from Taiwan this year, it would be the last time.
There was no mention of possible cross-strait influence on RTI’s use of shortwave.
In the same program, plans to scrap the relay broadcasts to Europe (and to rely on the internet in future) were also mentioned, however, those were portrayed as comparatively remote considerations.
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Related
» Resignations at RTI, Oct 3, 2008
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Tiananmen Square has a meaning to China – not just Beijing – as deep as the Place de la Bastille‘s for Paris, or that of the Alexanderplatz for Berlin. On 400,000 square meters, Tiananmen Square – according to relevant tourist information – provides space for one million people. That’s how the square has been used – for gatherings ordered by the Chinese Communist Party, when Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic, for Hua Guofeng‘s eulogy on Mao Zedong in 1976, and for military parades celebrating the People’s Republic’s 35th, 50th, and 60th birthday.
In 1997, on Tiananmen Square, a limited number of people celebrated the return of Hong Kong. The limitation had conjecturable reasons – eight years and four weeks earlier, Chinese army and police troops had quashed a student movement – that movement, too, had its public center in Tiananmen Square.
Ever since 1911, Tiananmen Square had been a place for gatherings outside the scripts of the powers that be. The first, probably, was the May-Fourth movement, sparked by the transfer of formerly German possessions in Shandong Province to Japan, rather than to China, in 1919, after World War One. Chinese intellectuals had begun to perceive their country not just as a civilization, but as a nation, interacting with other nations and falling behind internationally. In 1919, there were no celebrations. There were protests.
The May-Fourth movement has since been canonized. CCP historians see the movement as the beginning of progressive processes during the first half of the 20th century, leading to the CCP’s rise to power. But even Hua Guofeng’s eulogy on Mao, in September 1976, had been preceded by expressions of grief months earlier, in April, for the late chief state councillor Zhou Enlai. The more radical followers of Mao Zedong considered that an affront.
Personal impressions from the 1976 “Tian An Men incident” apparently made Wu Renhua, later a dissident, honor Hu Yaobang with a wreath on Tiananmen Square, in April 1989. Hu Yaobang had just passed away, and some points seem to be noteworthy:
When Hu died, he had been removed as the CCP secretary general for more than two years. Apparently, the party leadership had considered him to be too reform-minded. Expressions of grief from the population might be considered an affront by the party leaders, too, and they probably did, even if it took more than six weeks for the party to put an end to the movement of intellectuals and students in which Wu Renhua had been taking part.
By then, the movement had long gone beyond their original motivation of honoring Hu Yaobang. Through anti-corruption protest, it had turned into a movement for democracy.
Also, Wu Renhua, then an about thirty-three years old lecturer from the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, was part of the movement, but – according to his own account – rather going along with it, than driving it. His actual confrontational attitude towards the CCP only built after the massacre – an outrage that he had never seemed to expect from his country’s leaders.
And even if the University of Political Science and Law played an important role in the 1989 movement, the Beijing University, the Beida, had the traditional, leading role.
Rivalries among the 1989 dissidents are nothing unusual today. Frequently, they are personal rather than political, accompanied by allegations that X is self-important, that Y is a CCP collaborator, or that Z is remote-controlled by Falun Gong – somehow unpredictable or dangerous.
June 4 has become an unsolved complex in Chinese history. Whoever studied in a major Chinese city in 1989 will know that complex. “Sure”, a Shanghainese told me in the early 1990s, “we were all protesting.” To her, however, the matter was closed with the end of the movement – ostensibly, anyway. Many Chinese people born after 1989 hardly know about the existence of the movement, and among those who do remember it, at least some consider the crackdown a rather lucky outcome: be it because they don’t think that the students were able to handle politics in 1989, be it because they see a foreign conspiracy against China’s stability and China’s rise behind the former movement.
By 2008, a trend had changed. Many Chinese people who used to feel respect for (Western) democracies had changed their mind. Frequently negative coverage by Western media on the Beijing Olympics certainly played a role here – the negative foreign echo was spread selectively, but broadly by Chinese media. Some overseas Chinese in Germany even organized a silent protest against the biased German media who had failed to spread their patriotic message and who had therefore muzzled them. Add how the mighty had fallen in the financial crisis – China’s period of growth still continued, thanks to state stimulus programs that tried to compensate for falling imports by Western economies. Criticism from abroad – that’s how the Chinese public was informed (frequently correctly) – was an expression of foreign envy. The ideas so vigorously discussed in 1989 have given way to the truculent nationalism of new generations, Isabel Hilton noted in 2009.
In 1990, Yang Lian (楊煉), a Chinese poet in exile, published this:
The darker the sky, you say that the boat is old,
the storms it bore are long gone,
it is for us to erase the Self, let the boat of stone rot away.1)
That, of course, is the last thing a boat of stone will do.
What is the role of the 1989 dissidents today? According to C. A. Yeung, an Australian blogger and human rights activist, hardly any role. Dissidents abroad, above all, appear to be out of touch with many activists inside China. This may also be true for Wei Jingsheng, an exiled Chinese who lives in Washington D.C..
Wei wasn’t part of the 1989 movement. At the time, he had been a political prisoner for some ten years. He was only released in 1993, and soon, he was re-arrested. Since 1997, he has been in America.
It requires a strong – and at times probably dogmatic – personality to resist the pressures Wei faced. No confessions, no concessions to the Chinese authorities through all the years of imprisonment. To people like Wei, “foreign interference” in China’s “internal affairs” is no sacrilege, but necessity. Such “interference” may not create space to live for open dissidents in totalitarian countries, but it does, at times, enable dissidents to survive. In that light, it was only logical that Wei attended a hearing of the German federal parliament’s culture and media committee on December 2008, about the alleged proximity of Germany’s foreign broadcaster’s Chinese department (Deutsche Welle, DW) to the CCP. DW Staff and program should defend human rights and democracy as a matter of principle, Wei demanded.
It turned out that Wei didn’t actually know the DW programs, jeered Xinhua newsagency. Wei didn’t disagree: “As a matter of fact, I have said from earlier on that I would not listen to the broadcast of the Deutsche Welle’s Chinese service that has been speaking on the CCP’s behalf.”
Such appearances in foreign parliaments may appear fussy, and near-irrelevant. But in 2002, Dutch author and exile observer Ian Buruma had still believed that Chinese dissidents abroad could play a big role:
Let’s say there are suddenly serious splits in the Chinese government. Things start to move rather quickly. All kinds of things are going to happen. And then, it can be that you suddenly need people who know how to operate in Washington, who know which buttons to press and [who] have contacts in Congress, and so on. And this has happened in the case of Taiwan, for example, where you had dissidents in the 60s and 70s who hung around, languished, were considered to be irrelevant until things began to change in Taiwan politically and suddenly, they were important.2)
But maybe, by now, that role has diminuished further – if Buruma’s original observations were correct. Maybe Wei Jingsheng and other dissidents, among them those who had to leave China after June 4, 1989, will play a role similar to the one Wolf Biermann, an East German exile in West Germany, anticipated for himself long before the Berlin Wall came down: at times cheering from the sidelines, providing advice once in a while, but hardly authoritatively. Only on his return to East Germany, Biermann mused, his actual exile would begin, as hardly anyone would recognize him: Dann beginnt erst mein Exil.
The actual historical events of spring 1989 are a different story, however. These days, the CCP neither condemns the events, nor does it condone them. The topic is entirely shunned.
In Hong Kong, people haven’t forgotten. After all, the June-4 crackdown came as a shock for a society that was to return to the motherland eight years and a month later. June 4 is part of tradition there. For many Hong Kong activists who demand more democratic rights for Hong Kongers themselves, solidarity with mainland activists or dissidents is part of their self-image.
The only official evaluation so far: Deng Xiaoping defends his reform policies of economic openness and political repression, June 9, 1989 (click picture for video)
In 1995, Deng Xiaoping‘s daughter Deng Rong suggested in an interview with the New York Times that only later generations could judge the 1989 events. She didn’t know how people thought about it – but my father at least, in his heart, believed that he had no other way.
It may take years before a re-evaluation of the 1989 movements may begin. Or it may only take months. The CCP could initiate one if it feels strong enough, or the citizenry could initiate one if the party gets weaker.
Nobody inside or outside China knows what is being thought about the movement. And many Chinese may only find out what they think once it becomes a topic – when it gets unearthed, gradually or rapidly, in a controlled or spontaneous process.
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Notes
1) Yang Lian: Alte Geschichten (I-IV), Der einzige Hafen des Sommers, aus: Masken und Krokodile, Berlin, Weimar 1994, quoted by Joachim Sartorius (Hrsg): Atlas der Neuen Poesie, Reinbek, 1996, S. 67.
天空更加阴暗 你说 这船老了
一生运载的风暴都已走远
该卸下自己了 让石头船舷去腐烂
夏季 是惟一的港口
2) Jatinder Verma: Asian Diasporas, BBC (World Service), Sept 2, 2002
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Heavy rains further south make the river swell – this is the first time that I can see the river from this neck of the woods, as it has flooded all the planned areas, and possibly somewhat beyond. But the flood might be receding now.
The river, getting near the railway construction site, east of Verden, May 31, 2013
A flood of a different kind was stopped in Frankfurt on Saturday. According to a blog on German newspaper Der Freitag, 400 protesters were closed in by the police, allegedly for being “masked”. The “Freitag” blogger asked police for the reasons to close in on the demonstrators, and was told that disguises were the reason. A reporter with the Hessian state broadcaster Hessischer Rundfunk asked if the two or three maroons from within the protesters were the reason and was told that the police were not aware of maroons. Shortly after, however, the maroons had been cited as the main reason for closing in on the demonstrators. They’ll always find a reason, the blogger concludes.
German television’s channel 2 (ZDF) had some pictures (apparently on Saturday night, will be taken down after five to seven days), and here are some by Russia Today/Novosti.
A commenter thanked the Freitag blogger for his first-hand account from Frankfurt. She had googled for critical coverage for hours, and had found very little, she wrote. Even umbrellas – symbols for the eurozone bailouts – had been counted as illegal ways of disguise: I cannot tolerate that my taxes are used to interfere with my right to demonstrate, the commenter wrote.
The protest was stopped after a few hundred meters, writes Neues Deutschland:
One doesn’t have to agree with every demand from the Blockupy movement to understand the enormous political dimension expressed by the police approach. People who have to define umbrellas, sunglasses and small banners as “passive armature” so as to stop a peaceful demonstration, can’t rely on a claim of having safeguarded some kind of public order.
Man muss nicht mit jeder der Forderungen der Blockupy-Bewegung übereinstimmen, um die enorme politische Dimension zu erkennen, die in dem Vorgehen der Frankfurter Polizei zum Ausdruck kommt. Wer Schirme, Sonnenbrillen und kleine Transparente zu „passiven Bewaffnungen“ erklären muss, um eine friedlichen Protestzug zu stoppen, der kann sich nicht darauf berufen, irgendeine öffentliche Ordnung gewährleistet zu haben.
Even the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) doesn’t suggest that there had been violence – there had, however, been members of radical groups (Anhänger radikaler Gruppen) within. And FAZ quotes observers: the police approach had been completely disproportionate.
The Frankfurter Rundschau reporter found it difficult to judge the situation – the Blockupiers had refused to name a responsible or speaker and to discuss the route of the demonstration – some “paint bombs” (Farbbeutel) had been thrown, and at least some bank employees had been stopped from getting to work.There was a European dimension to the protest, with people from other European countries taking part.
Many reactions, even far away from Frankfurt, are very ntural: reactions from people who speak as parents and friends of those affected by the crisis, who begin to see the shattering power in the youth unemployment statistics elsewhere in Europe, and their relevance to Germany itself.
That’s a very different European union from the one we used to know from the media. It may become the union of the future.
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Related
» Clashes at Blockupy protest, The Guardian, June 1, 2013
» Plus ca change, plus c’est Franco, November 17, 2012
» German army’s crisis role, BBC, Aug 17, 2012
Established media companies have made concessions to blogging in terms of language, writing more casually and personally then even ten years ago. At the same time, the best tech blogs have matured in terms of language, found sources of their own, and have become visibly more secure in making inquiries. WordPress provided them with the opportunity of turning the media landscape inside out forever. Ordinary people, all of a sudden, were in a position to make media, and they did that by the thousands.
Die etablierten Medienhäuser sind Blogs sprachlich entgegen gekommen, schreiben heute lockerer und persönlicher als noch vor zehn Jahren. Zeitgleich sind die besten Techblogs sprachlich gereift, haben eigene Quellen aufgetan und sind bei der Recherche deutlich sicherer geworden. WordPress hat ihnen die Möglichkeit gegeben, die Medienlandschaft für immer umzukrempeln. Einfache Leute konnten plötzlich Medien machen, und sie taten es, zu Tausenden.
Jürgen Vielmeier, a blogger from Bonn, reminding his readers of the first WordPress release, ten years ago.
Xinhua, via Enorth (Tianjin), May 27, 2013 —
Chief state concillor Li Keqiang met with German president Gauck on Sunday.
国务院总理李克强26日在柏林会见德国总统高克。
Li Keqiang conveyed the cordial greetings and best wishes from chairman Xi Jinping. Li Keqiang said that current Sino-German relations were continuously reaching new developments on a high level, with both countries facing rare opportunities. With Merkel, we have deepened the Sino-German strategic partnership, and we held talks about strengthening cooperation in all kinds of fields. The two sides have issued a press communiqué, clearly stating the key areas and the direction of cooperation for our two countries. China is looking forward to strengthen dialog and exchange with Germany on the principles of respect and equal treatment, to enhancing understanding and mutual trust, to jointly cope with challenges.
李克强转达了习近平主席的亲切问候和良好祝愿。李克强说，当前中德关系在高水平上不断取得新发展，两国合作面临难得机遇。我同默克尔总理就深化中德战略伙 伴关系、加强各领域合作举行了很好的会谈，双方发表联合新闻公报，明确两国重点领域合作方向。中方愿本着相互尊重、平等相待的原则，同德方加强对话交流， 增进了解和互信，共同应对挑战。
Discussing China’s development and domestic situation, Li Keqiang said that all along during the past thirty years, China had moved forward, and the economy had achieved huge successes. Construction of a democratic legal system and the cause of human rights had constantly progressed. As a big developing country with 1.3 billion inhabitants, China’s path towards modernization was still long. We are acting from our own country’s national situation [国情, guóqíng, also translated as national characteristics or national circumstances sometimes], adhere to the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics, and at the same time, we want to draw on the civilizational achievements and experiences to achieve comprehensive development even better.
在谈到中国的发展和国内情况时，李克强表示，中国过去30多年一直在改革开放中不停顿地前行，经济社会发展取得巨大成就，民主法制建设和人权事业不断进步。中国作为一个拥有13亿人口的发展中大国，要实现现代化还有很长的路要走。我们从本国国情出发，将坚持走中国特色社会主义道路，同时愿借鉴人类社会的文明成果和有关发展经验，更好实现全面发展。
Gauck welcomed Li Keqiang to Germany and asked him to convey his cordial greetings to Xi Jinping. Gauck said that Germany and China both had a long history and magnificent cultures, and relations between the two countries had developed fine in recent years. Germany admires the achievements of China’s economic and social development and wants to strengthen cooperation and dialog with China in politics, economics, the humanities and other fields, and to promote further development in the relations of the two countries.
高克欢迎李克强访德，并请转达对习近平主席的亲切问候。高克说，德中都拥有悠久历史和灿烂文化，两国关系近年发展良好。德国钦佩中国经济社会发展取得的成就，愿同中方加强政治、经济、人文等领域的合作与对话，推动两国关系取得新发展。
Li also met with Brandenburg’s minister-president Matthias Platzeck in the regional capital Potsdam, next to Berlin. In Potsdam,visiting Cecilienhof Castle there,
Rheinische Post (RP) onkine, May 26, 2013 —
Li Keqiang re-emphaszized his country’s claim on an uninhabited group of islands in the East China Sea. Japan had to hand the territories back to China. “This was a hard-earned fruit of victory”, Li said, pointing to international post-war agreements. The islands, contested between the two countries, had once been stolen from China by Japan.
Li Keqiang bekräftigte in Potsdam den Anspruch seines Landes auf eine unbewohnte Inselgruppe im Ostchinesischen Meer. Japan müsse die Territorien an China zurückgeben. “Das war die Frucht des Sieges, der hart erkämpft wurde”, sagte Li unter Verweis auf internationale Abkommen der Nachkriegszeit. Die zwischen beiden Ländern seit langem umstrittenen Inseln seien China einst von Japan gestohlen worden.
Märkische Allgemeine, May 26, 2013 —
In front of the castle [Cecilienhof], some flurry arose when two Tibet activists wanted to register a spontaneous demonstration. Security forces stopped the protest “along the route of protocol”, as a police spokesman told the MAZ [Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung].
Vor dem Schloss kam kurz Unruhe auf, als zwei Tibet-Aktivisten eine spontane Demonstration anmelden wollten. Sicherheitskräfte unterbanden jedoch den Protest “entlang der Protokollstrecke”, wie ein Polizeisprecher gegenüber der MAZ sagte.
Platzeck, whose heart beats for Dortmund, revealed that the Chinese guest was a soccer fan and that they had talked about the game [between Borussia and Bayern], too. It had turned out that Keqiang had more been in favor of Bayern Munich. That, however, had been the only disharmony between the two politicians, Platzeck assured.
Platzeck, dessen Herz für Dortmund schlug, verriet, dass der chinesische Gast ein Fußball-Fan sei und man auch über das Spiel am Vorabend gesprochen habe. Dabei stellte sich heraus, dass Keqiang eher für den FC Bayern gehalten habe. Dies, so versicherte Platzeck, sei aber die einzige Disharmonie zwischen den beiden Politikern gewesen.
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Related
» Merkel vows, Bloomberg, May 27, 2013
» Industriousness and Wisdom, Jan 9, 2011
» Full of Vitality and Vigor, July 16, 2010
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A stroll from Bremen’s main railway station to the southern edge of the Bürgerpark (a five-minutes walk).
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Bremen Central Station
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Messe Bremen / Bremen Arena
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Bürgerpark Parkhotel
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Some kind of 19th-century-fashioned goddess, probably
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Looking south …
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… and north again
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The term “severe violations of discipline” is a common euphemism for corruption, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) writes in its online edition today, in connection with an investigation against Liu Tienan (刘铁男), deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). I’m wondering if that definition of the violation term is 100 percent correct. There may be other severe kinds of violation of party discipline, too, and besides, if corruption constituted one of them, which top leader could keep his desk? Never been corrupt through all the decades?
The term as used by the SCMP doesn’t refer to Liu himself here, but to another vice-ministerial-level official brought down before, in the current anti-graft campaign. Usually, corruption seems to become a topic when too many opponents agree that one of their comrades must go.
But this story is somewhat different from the usual downfall tales: reportedly, it was a journalist, Luo Changping (罗昌平), deputy chief editor of Caijing magazine (财经杂志), who first investigated Liu’s record, and published his findings on December 6 last year, according to Asia Pacific Daily (APD). And Liu didn’t fall off the horse right away: he appeared at the Sino-Russian energy talks, at talks with the party secretary of Tibet, and on other occasions.
However, his name wouldn’t appear again in public reports after January 30, writes APD. By then, he had apparently been humpty-dumptied.
Luo Changping reportedly posted allegations against Liu on Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblog platform. Microblogs are often the medium of choice for journalists when censorship would be likely on actual articles in papers or magazines, if printed or online.
[Update (May 14, 2013): In December, Caijing published an article accusing Liu Tienan's wife and son of illegal business dealings, according to the BBC.]
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Not too frequent dustclouds this spring, even though I saw two modest, tornado-shaped swirls moving across the plain top of the mountain (a mountain by local standards) next to here last week. I was on my way home at the time, and watched them moving.
Amost rainy – May 12, 2013, some three hours after sunrise
It was unpleasant to think about what drought and wind are doing to the topsoil, but it was a great sight at the same time. I kept watching the swirls for a few minutes, until they had reached a cornfied, above which they withered.
But this spring isn’t nearly as dry as the two previous ones. The garden looks good, and vegetables, potatos and young trees are all growing, nearly without irrigation.
