Peering into the Precipice

The air will surely be under increasing scrutiny from abroad – wonder how the media here will cover it…

A clear day during late 2007

28 July 2008

7 August 2008

8 August 2008

With the Olympics now less than two weeks away, the chances of them going down as smoothly as no one but the IOC and BOCOG predicted seem shockingly low.

Draconian traffic control measures to reduce air pollution began on 20 July, although on the ground most people have a hard time differentiating this week from any other. Particulate matter ratings remain two to three categories above what are considered safe, normal levels. From the perspective of the media, the smog is still palpable and distinctly not fog (as most Beijinger’s perceive it – not sure if this is what its called in their media). Beijing Air Blog already has a sharp analysis of the issues at hand, and the unlikelihood of things improving significantly save an extremely lucky northern wind, so I’ll leave that to him, but will include a visual comparison from the view at my apartment, facing east from the 23rd floor near the east fourth ring road.

A remarkably clear evening last October.

24 July – 4 full days after the beginning of the new traffic and construction control measures to reduce air pollution.

On top of poor environmental conditions, the security situation continues to cast a murky light on the promises made by Beijing when the IOC awarded these games in 2001 – namely that press restrictions would be lifted such that free reporting to a level comparable to all other Olympics would be possible. At the time (and as late as last year) the expectations continued to be defiantly victorious, however the final stretch towards the games has proven that old habits die hard. Below are links to two videos of the crowd control efforts at a recent round of ticket sales in Beijing, where reportedly 30,000+ waited for multiple days to get the few last remaining seats. As an potential target due to the density of citizens, police presence was high. The videos show a Hong Kong news crew experiencing tough love, Beijing style, from police who have long enjoyed the right to do everything in their power to prevent media reporting on, well, anything. Its good to keep in mind that this paranoia is occurring at a peaceful crowd control effort at a ticket sales event – imagine how the police might handle things if the situation were actually volatile.

Video 1

Video 2

For additional writing on the subject of media controls, broken promises, and a betrayed-feeling International Olympic Committee (IOC), I’d recommend the always enjoyable Absurdity, Allegory, and China – Fiat.

An poll from the Pew Research Center was released today regarding Chinese citizen’s views of their country, the international arena, and some specifics on China. Not surprisingly, Chinese had some interesting views on international standing that may defy what is otherwise expected.

Most Chinese also recognize the growing impact their economy has on others around the world, and they believe it is a positive impact. Only 3% of Chinese think their economy is hurting other countries. This is very different from how Americans currently view the effects of their nation’s economy — 61% say the U.S. is having a negative impact on other countries.

This isn’t surprising whatsoever, but raises an important point that will become pivotal in the coming years. First, the Chinese resoundingly fail to perceive any impact their country may have on the international stage besides a positive one. This likely stems from the overwhelmingly positive feelings they have about their country, especially its economy, being transposed onto their understanding of its international relations and impacts. Welcome to the developed world, guys, where opinions are like assholes and since we all stink who gives a shit! Other issues, such as media opinion and accuracy, play an important hand here as well, but more on that below.

The other important point is that Americans hold a highly negative view of China and its impact in the international arena. Big surprise again. While not surprising, this view deserves special attention, not because of its grains of truth (I do think that China’s international impact is a very mixed bag – as is America’s), but because of its root causes in America. The poll doesn’t provide finer detail here, but if the mainstream media is any indication then many Americans feel this way because of economic reasons, that is, outsourcing. All I have to say is suck it up – to borrow a phrase I’ve heard recently, stop whining and try to develop some of that ‘good old Yankee ingenuity’ that America was built on. While China may be going through intense growing pains, including rampant corruption, a barrage of labor standards violations, product recalls, and a rapid eradication of any semblance of natural resources, most honest assessments would have a very hard time labeling the common Chinese worker as lazy. If my two years have shown me anything, its that the Chinese, all up and down the line from rich to poor, are eager to make the most of their rise. When 1.3 billion are all competing for a piece of that +10% annual growth it creates a labor market that most American’s would pale at – and will continue to pale at as China and the rest of the ‘hungry’ world work double time to afford another step on the ladder. Besides, save for a handful of yuppies’ children sipping foreign harvested coffee in Starbucks writing on their Suzhou produced MacBooks, American’s certainly didn’t lose much sleep for the past several decades as free trade, open markets, and neoliberal economics was decried by the developing world as ‘neocolonialism’ – and China (and later India) won’t either.

Back to the point at hand though. While I see a large degree of fairness (a day’s work, a day’s pay) in China’s economic rise, certain components of its international relations, particularly in Africa, leave room for improvement. I wonder to what extent the common Chinese citizen understands the nuances of Chinese policy there (as opposed to the resounding majority of Westerners – ha!). Nonetheless, at least those elsewhere have a fair chance to learn about such policies at their interest. The extent of media control in China, however, leaves even interested citizens at a disadvantage. Beyond that, it creates a false sense of confidence in policies and the people behind them. For example:

Fully 96% believe China’s hosting of the games will be a success, and 56% say it will be very successful…a remarkably high 93% say the Olympics will help the country’s image around the world.

Given that this poll was conducted during the mass protests throughout Europe (and those circumvented only by parlor tricks in America and elsewhere), something just doesn’t add up. A quick look at common sources of information and media trust, however, reveal everything:

Television continues to be the primary source for national and international news for most Chinese (96% say it is one of their top two sources). Newspapers are a distant second (56%)…

A small but growing number of Chinese are going online for news (13% name it as one of their top two sources)…

Yikes! I wonder what these numbers are like in America or Europe, where media control and sanitization isn’t nearly as prevalent and heavy handed. Furthermore, its not an issue that Chinese trust that the content they’re receiving is unfiltered, unbiased, unedited. A separate study by Pew shows that there is actually a decent understanding of the type of media controls taking place (on Chinese media), although trust of government goodwill in its ‘protection’ is high.

…over 80% of respondents say they think the internet should be managed or controlled, and in 2007, almost 85% say they think the government should be responsible for doing it.

Thus we have a population of highly nationalistic citizens, convinced that botched torch relays, a soiled environment, and increasingly intrusive security and ‘harmonious society’ measures will reflect positively on their country during its three weeks on center stage. I’m not trying to deliberately burst anyone’s bubble – I think there is a lot of goodwill that China can glean from a successful Olympics, and in many ways the situation is improving and does warrant more acknowledgment than your average Westerner is willing to cede. But for 93% of the population to expect a torrent of goodwill with such high certainty… well, that’s just madness and misinformation. Oh, did we mention who footed that $40 billion price tag on the new venues, pollution controls, etc etc etc? Like so many in America and elsewhere have already learned (and more remain!), its important to kick the tires first before signing the check.

Pew Research Center: The Chinese Celebrate Their Roaring Economy As They Struggle With Its Costs

Pew Research Center: Few in China Complain About Internet Controls

Following an absolutely splendid vacation back home in Alaska I’ve returned to find China, well, slightly more secure looking.

Upon entering China I found that the security process at Beijing Capital Airport (Terminal 3) has been clogged by the inclusion of several new pieces of machinery just following the baggage claim. While before suspicious looking characters (read: probably western Chinese) were flagged for a detailed frisking while the rest of us white devils skimmed by without notice, now everyone is subject to a electronic pat down as they walk through a x-ray/bomb detector/doomsday machine the size of a king’s door and slightly reminiscent of the full body X-ray hallway in Total Recall (if the movie sucked instead of kicked ass). Of course with some 15-20 baggage claims funneling into one security point it creates a hell of a bottle neck… and upon exiting the door of doom you’re faced with another terror detection machine, only this one is so irradiating that they dare not let you walk through it (although most Chinese appeared comfortable with reaching their hands in to speed up the process).

In Beijing a lot has changed transportation wise in the few weeks I was gone. On 20 July the government moved to take 50% of the traffic off the road by imposing a restricted driving scheme whereby odd license plate holders can only drive on odd numbered days and the opposite. While I haven’t noticed much change in the quality of road traffic, the metro moved from the 5th to 3rd layer of hell. Taking a million plus cars off the road has a way of screwing up my lovely daily commute, although luckily the numerous bomb scanning, x-ray machines and security attendants with x-ray wands don’t cramp my style much – in over a week home I’ve yet to see anyone being stopped for security reasons, forced to use any of the scanning devices, or even given the stink eye.

Meanwhile, the Internet is experiencing outrages that are even worse than during the unrest this past March, with a majority of websites, including this one, YouTube, Google, common news sites, and niche anything sites experiencing erratic availability. I’ve got a load of nice pictures to share with friends but unfortunately can’t seem to establish a connection long enough to get even the first one up. Apparently even me chatting with friends on MSN is subject to scrutiny as that and Skype are also victims to the outages, a first in my experience. The net is surely closing on… someone.

And indeed, the security situation in other parts of China appear to warrant some degree of caution and preparation. Xinhua has reported that this morning 2 buses exploded in China’s remotest Yunnan province, killing several and injuring over a dozen. Three separatists in China’s northeast were publically executed by firing squad, with a apparently unwilling public, in a show of force by the Central powers that be.

Unfortunately the reports that are streaming in via the Chinese media don’t do much to quell the nagging morbid curiosity that must be creeping into the national id (as it surely is creeping in elsewhere) – at least not from what I’ve seen. This primarily stems from the problem of transparency, or lack thereof. When senior officials in China are willing to write off foreign concerns of transparency by deferring to China’s “government [having] never been transparent for 5,000 years” it starts to raise some eyebrows, and this is after plenty were already peaked. Its not to say the government in China is bad – just more along the lines of par for the course of any soon to be world super power – us American’s have a hard time lecturing others on good governance. Nonetheless, images of this morning’s blast on TV elicited a highly inappropriate chuckle from my living room, as the coverage of several ‘victims’ walking around in a daze was so obviously staged it wasn’t even worth of a B-movie. And this on CCTV-1 – way to get that ‘exclusive’ guys! Imagine if Dana Perino had a billion dollars of fun money to sell great yarns but the stories still came across as fake and condescending – oh wait.

But, despite the hair pulling madness, it feels good to be back home in Beijing. And that says a lot more than Xinhua, Dana Perino, or any other con artist trying to get a rise out of taxpayers ever could. After all, we still have some of the worlds greatest cheapest bars.

Bus explosions leave two dead in Sw China, police say deliberately set_English_Xinhua

Across China, Security Instead Of Celebration – washingtonpost.com

FT.com / World – Chinese fund tries to calm west’s fears

I’m not normally into the user created videos which feed 99% of YouTube and related sites, as I think about 99% of them are narcissistic garbage. I understand that the same goes for blogs, probably including this one, but whatever.

I recently received a link to one that I thought was pretty cool and actually worth the 5 minutes of time you’ll burn on it. I noticed China wasn’t in the list of Matt’s stops, but apparently he went there in 2005(?) and didn’t feel like coming back. Or, more likely, was denied a visa for his 2008 trip.

Where the Hell is Matt?

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.