Dealing with China's changing image

My office assistant just received a packet of T-shirts that she ordered from Taobao, an online retailer. One of the T-shirts reads: Chinese people are not easily bullied!

Taobao is apparently selling these kinds of T-shirts like hotcakes.

Given the rising nationalism in China, it’s not surprising.

And I think it illustrates a larger point of how far China’s public rhetoric distances from the reality of public mood.

I refer to the Journey of Harmony, the global torch relay ahead of the Olympic Summer Games. The torch relay has run into a perfect storm of troubles. And everyone is trying to frame the troubles in a way that befits their world outlook. The fact is, the torch relay has been anything but a journey of harmony.
 
Indeed, just a couple of years ago, China’s Foreign Ministry was talking about the nation’s peaceful rise. And the slogan of the Summer Games is: One World, One Dream.

But some people in the outside world are getting a different image of China. The photo above was taken in Seoul during Sunday’s torch relay there. It shows Chinese students attacking a South Korean man who was critical of China.

It was far from an isolated incident. The headline in the Korea Times yesterday read: Anti-Chinese Sentiment Looms after Torch Relay.

The top of the story said:

Violence by Chinese during the Olympic flame relay in Seoul, Sunday, has ignited anti-China sentiment among Koreans.

The Beijing Olympic torch was successfully relayed from the South to North Korea, supported by enthusiastic Chinese supporters. However, the relay was marred by a clash between human rights activists and an overwhelming number of supporters, which left a sour taste in the mouth of many South Korean citizens.

Before the event, the police's main concern was that rallies by human rights activists to protest China's crackdown in Tibet might disrupt the relay. However, tens of thousands of nationalistic Chinese supporters flocked to streets in Seoul, resulting in an outbreak of violence against anti-Beijing Olympic protestors.

Some, including one Korean journalist, sustained light injuries from the clash in which Chinese expatriates and students hurled rocks, sidewalk blocks and rubbish. Police say they will apprehend those who resorted to violence.

On major portals, Internet users criticized the nationalistic Chinese and shared photos and video clips that show them attacking riot policemen and anti-China activists in a ``foreign country.''

"It's a shame. Those Chinese have completely forgotten the Olympic spirit of peace,'' an Internet user with "ttottia'' said on a Daum message board.

Further down, it read:

Koreans watching the relay were surprised to see the lining up of as many as 10,000 Chinese on streets the flame passed through. About 8,300 policemen were mobilized for the event. Among other questions raised were whether all the Chinese were legal residents or not; how ``foreigners'' could attack citizens of their host country; and why they held a demonstration here, not in Beijing, a Seoul citizen said.

``I started hating Chinese. Why did they do such a horrible thing here? They should go back to their own country,'' Kim Hyun-jin, an office worker in Seoul, said.

Thousands of Chinese, mostly young students, first cheered the torchbearers, singing, chanting and waving posters that said ``We love China'' and ``Go, China.'' But the cheering took on a completely different tone when they met anti-China activists and demonstrators who denounced China's oppression of Tibet and its repatriation of North Korean defectors.

The Chinese supporters pushed through police lines, with some of them hurling rocks, bottled water and plastic and steel pipes at the protesters.

It soon turned into a violent clash that left citizens, riot police officers and anti-China protestors injured. A news photographer was hit over the head and another Korean activist was hurt after being hit by a pipe wrench in the chest.

Ouch! Not good for the peaceful rise image.

Then along comes this link on the Chosun.com website, part of the biggest-selling newspaper group in South Korea. A well-known commentator makes a disagreeable comparison about the current Olympics and a past one:

A political commentator renowned for his sharp tongue has likened the Beijing Olympics to the 1936 Berlin Olympics under Nazi rule after Chinese mobs ran rampant here during the Seoul leg of the Olympic torch relay on Sunday. "China seems to have no intention of making the Olympics a festival that people around the world can enjoy together," Jin Jung-kwon, a lecturer in German language and literature at Chung-Ang University, said in a radio program on Monday. "Instead, it seems it's trying to use it as an opportunity to display its power and bring the whole world under its red flag." Jin said it was "in keeping for people with such thinking to cause open violence in the streets."

"The Berlin Olympics did not aim to promote world peace but to propagandize the Nazis' imperialism," he said, and it was significantly also a period when street violence against minorities was rampant. He added the violence in Seoul caused him to realize how "terrible" the climate in China itself must be, considering that the violent protesters here had already been exposed to a freer society. "It makes me shudder to imagine what is happening in Tibet," he said. The Chinese mobs on Sunday surrounded and beat up Koreans protesting China's violent crackdown on independence protests in Tibet.

Ouch again!
 
Chinese people are angry. The peaceful rise phase is over. Time to look for a new slogan and deal directly with changing world opinion of China. Maybe that T-shirt sums it up: Chinese people are not easily bullied!

The Olympic Torch Game: Version 2.0

So you think you could run with the Olympic torch and dodge the protesters?

Give it a try. Click on this link to an ESPN computer game that tests your skill at keeping the flame from being doused.

More troubles along the torch relay

Here’s more fodder to get people worked up on Tibet and the Summer Olympic Games, as if emotions weren’t high enough already.

The Olympic torch relay made its troubled journey through Nagano, Japan, and Seoul, South Korea, over the weekend and cruises trouble-free through Pyongyang today.

A Chinese student was bloodied during confrontations between pro-Chinese and pro-Tibet protesters in Nagano. I don’t know the circumstances. You can see him in this photo. If you sympathize with the Chinese side, it is enough to make one’s blood pressure rise. 

The Kyodo news story about the torch relay said a huge police presence along the route “dissipated any festive mood in Nagano.”

That probably sums up the whole global torch relay.

Then the torch hit Seoul, and clashes between the many sides were more open, according to this New York Times story. Only Tibet wasn’t the only issue. In Seoul, it was also the question of how China treats North Korean refugees that flee across the border.

“When lone protesters demanded that China stop repatriating North Korean refugees, they were quickly surrounded by jeering Chinese. Near the park, Chinese students surrounded and beat a small group of protesters, news reports said.”

“In another scuffle, at the city center where the five-hour torch run ended, Chinese surrounded several Tibetans and South Korean supporters who unfurled pro-Tibet banners, and kicked and punched them, witnesses said.”

I’m still sort of haunted by a passage in a story from Australia’s Daily Telegraph following the torch relay in Canberra last Thursday. The perpetrator is a Chinese nationalist. But it could’ve been the other way around, too. What I find abhorrent is the use of a child as a way to bait another person who differs in viewpoint.

But the fierce display of nationalistic pride by a pro-Chinese crowd of up to 10,000 caught everyone by surprise.

Ask Karuna Bajracharya, a 26-year-old Nepalese pro-Tibet supporter who now lives on the South Coast.

He says he was walking toward Parliament House when, ``I saw a mob of Chinese men. They started yelling and hitting me with their flags.
“There was a father with his son who was about five or six years old and the kid was hitting me. His father actually said to him, `Keep hitting him.'

“Then he said to me, ‘If you don't like it, hit him in the head.' He wanted me to hit his son, so he could retaliate and the whole thing could get out of hand.”

What have we come to?

'Biz opportunities are being missed'

Many foreign business people are up in arms over a tightening of visa procedures for getting into China. The tightening occurred last week. There's been no real explanation from the Foreign Ministry but it seems obvious that the clampdown is to keep troublemakers out of China before and during the Olympic Games.

The American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong has a lot of information here about its concern.

Now the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China is weighing in on the matter. Here's part of a press release that just arrived:

Beijing, 25th April 2008. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China is concerned about recent and unexpected difficulties encountered in obtaining and renewing business travel visas (“F visas”) to China. In the last few days, the European Chamber has received complaints from many of its members regarding these matters and has expressed its concerns to China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

European companies in mainland China, Hong Kong and abroad have in recent days encountered such difficulties as:

-- refusal of multiple-entry F visas,
-- suspension of express visa services for F visa applications, and
-- shortening of the length of issued single- and double-entry F visas.

The European Chamber is also particularly concerned about cases where Asia-based Europeans seeking to renew their China business visas, have been required to return to their home countries to apply.

For many years, EU-China business co-operation has benefited from generally convenient and efficient China visa services. According to the feedback from the member companies of the European Chamber, these recent developments impede business between the EU and China. European Chamber President Joerg Wuttke said: “Suspending the issue of express visas means that business opportunities are being missed. Beyond slowing down the process of travelling to China, these new practices make the possibility of travelling to China for business uncertain and increase travel costs by limiting the number of entries per visa”. He also commented that, “The requirement that F visa applicants return to their home country to renew their visas imposes substantial extra costs in terms of both time and money on EU-China business cooperation. This benefits no one.”

Tibetans as second-class citizens

One of the factors in the Tibetan crisis that hasn’t had a good airing is why Tibetans are treated as second-class citizens.

Chinese citizens are generally freer than ever. They can get passports. They can change jobs at will. They can choose where they live and marry whom they wish. Some of that also applies to China’s 56 minority groups. But Tibetans don’t enjoy all the freedoms of other Chinese. They are restricted in their movements within the Tibetan Autonomous Region, frequently turned back at police checkpoints. They can’t get passports very easily, sometimes waiting years and occasionally flatly denied them. It is a similar situation among Muslims in Xinjiang. And when Tibetans and Muslim Uyghurs travel around China now, hotels often deny them rooms. In the run-up to the Olympics, it simply appears to be an unwritten rule that hotels must turn them away.

China has poured huge amounts of development aid into Tibet, and many Chinese wonder why Tibetans aren’t grateful.

This issue of second-class status is one of the reasons. It is not separate-but-equal. It is separate-and-unequal. For many Americans, it evokes still-fresh memories of racial discrimination. The issue came up at a hearing on Tibet Wednesday of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in Washington.

One of those speaking was Lodi Gyari, the special envoy of the Dalai Lama, and a resident of Washington.
   
Gyari brought up the issue of discrimination in getting passports and in checking into hotels to the panel. I've bold-faced two passages below that I thought are relevant:

“If your identity card says that you are Tibetan nationality, you can not even check into any hotel or any accommodation as all other Chinese citizens can do. And if your identity card says that you are Tibetan nationality, you cannot get a passport easily.  On the other hand, the Chinese are just giving passports very easily because they would like the economic advantage to be taken. So what I'm saying is that there is a very dangerous discrimination by the Chinese government to the Tibetans as people. And this is really leading into tremendous animosity between the two peoples. This is of great concern.”

A few minutes later, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican from Alaska, responded thus:

“And your very specific examples of how through what might be considered a small act -- denying a Tibetan citizen the opportunity to check into a hotel, for instance, might be a small act, but what that action does to further the tension and you used the term ‘ethnic conflict’ that is being built in China through incidents just such as that, or whether it's the issuances of passports. You're treating your citizens differently depending on where they are coming from.  And if you want to further inflame ethnic conflict, you kind of build up through smaller incidents like this and hope others on the outside don't notice.  I think the record should reflect that we're noticing.”

Where the Tibet movement gets funds

Who funds the Dalai Lama and his government-in-exile?

It is an interesting question raised by an article in Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper, which implies that U.S. financing of Tibetan exile groups amounts to support for a “color revolution” in Tibet. (Sorry, the article is behind a pay wall.)

The color revolutions are what happened in Ukraine, Georgia and other places. In Tibet’s case, it would be a “crimson revolution,” based on the color of the monks’ robes. 

The article, citing author William Engdahl, suggests that Washington is fanning the flames of Tibetan destabilization through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an agency that gets nearly all its funding from Congress.

“… The NED has supported five major Tibetan exile groups: the Gu-Chu-Sum (ex-political prisoners' association) Movement of Tibet; the International Campaign for Tibet; the Tibetan Women's Association; the Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet; and the Voice of Tibet.

These groups tried to organize a protest march by Tibetans in India back to their homeland, and had a hand in organizing the recent riots in Tibet. The NED's funding comes almost entirely from the US government.”

That some of the groups funded by NED, and grouped in the Tibetan People’s Uprising Movement, seek independence for Tibet is beyond doubt. But the levels of funding are very low. What I find more interesting are the roles of foundations and other non-governmental organizations in providing money to the Tibetan cause.

The article cites U.S. groups such as Freedom House and the Trace Foundation, which is linked to financier George Soros, as well as the Albert Einstein Institution (again, apparently linked to Soros) and the New York-based Tibet Fund.  It also lists Germany’s Friedrich Naumann Foundation, a think tank linked to the German Free Democratic Party.

I also know that the Tibetan House Trust in London is a significant source of funding.

Here are some of the NED funding figures for 2006, the latest I could easily get. Just scan through it. The money barely covers office expenses. If a nation’s political system can be toppled by this kind of money, then it’s going to have a lot of potential enemies.

Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet -- $40,000 -- To document the situation of political prisoners in Tibet and provide support for   political prisoners in Tibet and former political prisoners in exile.

International Campaign for Tibet -- $53,000 -- To increase understanding between Tibetans and Chinese by providing greater access to information about Tibet. The organization will facilitate interaction between Tibetan and Chinese officials, academics, and the public through conferences, and the publication of a Chinese-language newsletter and website.

Khawa Karpo Tibet Cultural Centre Charitable Trust -- $20,000 -- To provide news and analysis to the Tibetan public and promote greater discussion and debate on current issues related to Tibet and Tibetans. Khawa Karpo will publish the Tibetan-language newspaper, Bo-Kyi-Bang-Chen (Tibet Express), three times per month.

Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet -- $15,000 -- To build leadership skills, promote cultural and political awareness of Tibet, and encourage greater civic engagement among Tibetan youth.

Tibet Museum -- $15,500 -- To preserve and present material related to modern Tibetan history and to educate visitors about the Tibetan culture and people.

Tibetan Literacy Society -- $28,500 -- To provide the Tibetan public accurate information on developments in Tibet and in the exile community, and to promote open discussion among intellectuals and a general readership on civic issues, including human rights and democracy.

Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre -- $20,000 -- To strengthen local Tibetan assemblies, the first level government of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

Tibetan Review -- $26,000 -- To promote freedom of press and understanding of democratic concepts in the Tibetan exile community. Tibetan Review, a monthly English-language news magazine, will provide Tibet-related news and insightful opinion pieces and editorials.

Tibetan Women's Association -- $30,000 -- To promote the social, political, and economic empowerment of Tibetan refugee women and raise awareness of human rights violations against women in Tibet.

Tibetan Writers Abroad PEN Center -- $10,000 -- To preserve Tibetan literature and culture and protect and support Tibetan writers in Tibet. The Tibetan PEN Center will translate essays and other written materials into Tibetan, much of it originally published in Chinese.

Voice of Tibet -- $35,000 -- To encourage and sustain independent public opinion inside Tibet and to familiarize Tibetans with the ideals of democracy and human rights. The Voice of Tibet, an independent, Tibetan-language shortwave radio station, will broadcast regular news about Tibet, the Tibetan exile community, and the Tibetan government-in-exile to listeners in Tibet and in exile in neighboring countries.

My off-the-cuff analysis of this is that those who are looking at these groups as Trojan Horses for a secret Western plot to destabilize China are looking at the wrong issue.

The real power of the Tibet issue is in its appeal to masses of Westerners. The Dalai Lama fills stadiums in the West. Tickets sell out in a flash. He may well be the best known figure from Greater China, better known than Hu Jintao, Wen Jiabao, maybe even Mao himself. (Perhaps Yao Ming would give him a run for his money...) Hold up photos of Mao and the Dalai Lama in the streets of Peoria, Illinois, or Dusseldorf, Germany, and see who is more widely recognized. If the Dalai Lama even comes close, it means he has a lot of “soft power.” And I personally don’t think this is a creation of the media. It’s a sign that the Dalai Lama’s talks about compassion and non-violence – which most Chinese consider hypocritical – resonate strongly outside of China.

If this indeed is the case, then China is mistaken by being concerned about the $15,000 going to the Longsho Youth Movement of Tibet, and the like. It should be more concerned about a battle of ideas.

Tibet becomes an international matter

At nearly every press briefing by the Foreign Ministry lately, foreign journalists are told: Tibet is China’s internal matter. It is not an international issue.

That is wrong, and here is my evidence.

On Monday, the Paris City Council bestowed honorary citizenship on the Dalai Lama, a rare act only done a handful of times before and a stick in the eye to China. Click here and here and here for more.

President Nicolas Sarkozy opposed the move. He is rightfully worried that anti-French protests in China could get out of hand and hurt French interests.

Yet leading the charge is Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe, a Socialist who is a likely contender for the presidency in 2012. Delanoe called the Dalai Lama “a champion of peace.” He said Paris wanted “to show its support for the people of Tibet who are defending their most basic right to dignity, freedom and simply life.”

Delanoe is no fool. The Dalai Lama is very popular in France. So at the expense of France’s relations with China, he thinks this will help build his popularity. Perhaps this is brinksmanship. After all, French companies like the huge retailer Carrefour are getting hurt by calls for a boycott among Chinese consumers angry that gendarmes didn’t protect the flame better during the Olympic torch relay in Paris April 7. Protesters besieged the relay, and the flame had to be relit at least four times.

The Dalai Lama, by the way, will be in France in August, the same month as the Beijing Summer Games.

So let me ask: If the Tibet issue is merely an internal affair, why is it having an impact on the politics of France? Maybe what China means to say is that it’s a French internal matter.

On Tibet, the torch and Dick Pound

Utterly contradictory stories are emerging about how long Tibet will remain shut down to tourists.

I bet it will stay sealed off till after the Olympics in August.

You may recall how China said a few weeks ago that Tibet would reopen May 1. But officials later seemed to think better of that plan. They postponed the opening date indefinitely. Some foreign tour groups apparently got antsy, and the central government probably didn’t want to completely destroy the Tibet tourism industry. So before the weekend, state media announced that Tibet would reopen “soon.”

Here’s what China Daily said:

The Tibet regional government on Friday rejected reports it has abandoned a plan to reopen the region to foreign tourists on May 1, saying it "will open soon", without giving a specific date.

In a written statement sent to China Daily, the information office of the regional government said: "The Tibet tourism bureau is doing its utmost to prepare for the reopening of all scenic spots."

The same day this news came out, I heard on very good authority that top diplomats at the U.S. Embassy don’t believe Tibet will reopen till September. After all, why take needless risks that foreigners will embarrass China when the Olympic torch passes through Tibet later this spring? Or worse yet, mount some sort of protest during the Games themselves?

Speaking of the torch, I wrote a story last Friday about how the relay has turned into a debacle for China and for the advertisers. As I was reporting the story, I contacted Dick Pound, a name that might ring a bell for some of you. Mr. Pound is a Canadian lawyer who made quite a name for himself with his aggressive tactics while serving as chief of the World Anti-Doping Agency. He remains an International Olympic Committee member.

I didn’t hear from Mr. Pound until after my deadline. But I don’t want to waste his remarks on why he thinks the global torch relay is a bad idea. So here’s the email he sent me:

I have always had doubts about the value of an international torch relay, especially when a super-power is the host country. My Olympic Games Study Commission recommended against anything but a domestic relay.  The costs, logistics and risks far outweigh any possible benefits. What Olympic “uptick” can possibly result in foreign countries where the torch spends half a day?

The IOC should have been more alert to the problems that are now being encountered.  It is very easy for pressure groups to attach their issues to a vulnerable and peaceful symbol such as the Olympic flame.

The violence of the protests on this occasion have, however, removed all the moral high ground from underneath the protesters.  It is not credible to protest against violence by resorting to violence in other countries.
    RWP

The final Olympics venue is ready

Journalists were allowed into the just completed “Bird’s Nest” National Stadium, and here are some photos to show what it looks like.

This is the landmark venue for the Summer Games, a $450 million beauty. The opening and closing ceremonies will occur here, and such events as the marathon will terminate here.

It is a striking facility, especially from a distance. The interlaced beams look randomly but stably intertwined. Once inside, the color red predominates. It is not a covered stadium. But if one looks overhead, multiple cables crisscross the open-air roof. Clearly, the designers plan for some acrobatic displays.

In the center of the playing field, there are four huge platforms on hydraulic lifts, just as in a large theater. So the opening ceremony will clearly include scenes of performers rising from underground into the air.

On another note, the Foreign Correspondents Club of Beijing had a session yesterday with Stefano Baldini, the reigning Olympic gold medalist marathoner from the 2004 Athens Games. Baldini had some interesting things to say. For one, he thinks the smog will be less of a factor in the upcoming Games then heat and humidity, at least for his event.

“The hotter it is and the more humid it is, the more the gap shrinks with the strongest runners,” he said, meaning that the race may be wide open.

Air quality has not been good this week, and Baldini remarked on it.

“I haven’t seen such a polluted sky anywhere else,” he said. “I think it’s very psychological because you see it. You sense it.”

But he said air quality is likely to get better by summer time.

He also snorted at the idea of wearing a mask when coming to Beijing, breaking into English from his native Italian. Some teams, including the U.S. squad, will be providing masks to athletes.

“No mask,” he said. “I don’t see any advantage in wearing a mask, neither for everyday use nor for training.”

Making mischief with bogus photos

Emotions are running high on the Tibet issue, and the mischief-makers are out in force.

As an example, take a look at the photo above. It’s been making the rounds on the internet. If you believe what you see, without applying any skepticism, you might think these are Chinese cops about to put on Tibetan monks’ robes and create a little mayhem – a little psy-ops, as it were, to make the monks look violent.

Problem is, the photo is not what it seems. It’s a still photograph from the set of a 2003 movie, according to this blog. Basically, it’s a “fake news” photo.

Now, someone snatched this photo and rather maliciously (at least, in my book) is trying to stir up trouble.

I don’t know if it was this photo or another one that got Tibetans and even the Dalai Lama referring to the possibility that cops were dressing up as monks. What is disturbing is not only that it is unfair to the cops but also it allows Tibetans to exonerate themselves from the real violence that occurred in Lhasa March 14. Xinhua has a different version here.

And it’s not just one side. All sides are doing it here. They are pulling photos from movie stills, changing things around in PhotoShop, and doing all sorts of monkey business in an effort to get people worked up. There was another photo a few weeks ago that allegedly showed a Tibetan protester carrying a monster sword. It was the kind of image that on seeing one immediately thinks, “If I were there, I would run for my life.” Again, it appears that photo was fake. And it was making the rounds in China, causing people to mutter about what barbarians the Tibetans are. Again, profoundly malicious mischief. 

I think there’s an old adage that goes something like, “Believe half what you hear, and only what you see.” That would be out of date when it comes to China, where faked photos are common. Earlier this year, one of the best news photos of 2007 turned out to be a computer montage. If I remember correctly, it was a herd of antelope racing near a speeding train on the Tibetan Plateau.

Anger at CNN and the world

I only irregularly attend the briefings offered by the Foreign Ministry every Tuesday and Thursday. But I sometimes find them useful, if only to hear the questions some of my colleagues from different countries ask. For instance, that was the way I learned earlier this year that a case of pesticide-tainted dumplings from China that sickened 10 Japanese consumers had suddenly morphed into a much larger matter of mutual suspicion between Tokyo and Beijing.

So there I was at the press briefing yesterday when a Xinhua reporter asked ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu a question about biased reporting from CNN, and particularly from someone she described as an anchor with what sounded like the surname Ka-Fu-Di.

The simultaneous English language translator kept referring to what sounded like Kafdi.

First, I didn’t know who the heck they were talking about. Secondly, I was struck with the speed at which Ms. Jiang issued what seemed to be a prepared response.

“We are shocked and strongly condemn the vicious remarks by Kafdi, the CNN anchor. He’s used his microphone to denigrate and insult China and the Chinese people,” she began, noting that Kafdi displayed “hatred” for China. “We solemnly request that CNN and Kafdi himself take back the malicious remarks and apologize to the Chinese people.”

After some mulling, I concluded that they must be referring to Jack Cafferty, a commentator who appears regularly on domestic CNN and, I believe, rarely on CNN international. Here’s the story I wrote about the matter.

No matter what Cafferty said, I found it rather odd that the Foreign Ministry would elevate it to the level of a pressing bilateral matter, demanding an apology. Can you imagine a Chinese diplomat heading into Foggy Bottom in Washington with a demarche about something a commentator said on TV? They’d be laughed out of the State Department. Will the Chinese Foreign Ministry begin monitoring all U.S. television talk shows for opinions deemed offensive to China? Does China want to be seen as trying to impose its own kind of media controls on commentators in the United States? I can't imagine that tactic will get far.

On several occasions over the past few years, and particularly during the anti-Japanese riots of 2005, when official pronouncements seemed strident but not as strident as what was appearing on the internet, it has struck me that Chinese officialdom runs a little panicked. As nationalism gains steam, officials are afraid of the anger on the street, worried about staying ahead of the firestorm. After all, the party doesn’t want to seem out of touch on issues of patriotism and national dignity. So this is entirely about maintaining a tough image before the domestic audience. And sure enough, state TV all morning has replayed Ms. Jiang’s demands for an apology.

In 2005, the party was able to keep a lid on nationalist sentiments. I hope it can do the same now.

Here’s the CNN response that was emailed to me early this morning:

We are aware of concerns about Jack Cafferty's comments related to China in the context of the upcoming Olympics, which were broadcast on The Situation Room on April 9, 2008.

CNN would like to clarify that it was not Mr. Cafferty's, nor CNN's, intent to cause offense to the Chinese people, and would apologize to anyone who has interpreted the comments in this way.

CNN is a network that reports the news in an objective and balanced fashion. However, as part of our coverage we also employ commentators who provide robust opinions that generate debate.

On this occasion Jack was offering his strongly held opinion of the Chinese government, not the Chinese people –- a point he subsequently clarified on The Situation Room on April 14.

It should be noted that over many years, Jack Cafferty has expressed critical comments on many governments, including the U.S. government and its leaders.

Confusing Nepal with Tibet

Stephen Hadley is the national security adviser to President Bush, and is paid a good salary to keep the White House abreast of trouble around the world.

Yet he appears not to know the difference between Tibet and Nepal.

Hadley appeared on the Sunday talk show ABC’s “This Week” (see the clip at this site at huffingtonpost.com) where he confused Nepal for Tibet no less than five times. In fact, he never mentioned Tibet.

Host George Stephanopoulos asked Hadley whether Bush would attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics, and Hadley then riffed on the issues surrounding protests in and around Tibet, the Olympic torch and the Dalai Lama. Only Hadley seemed too think the protests related to the Dalai Lama revolve around Nepal, a neighboring country that is largely Hindu, not Buddhist.

“If countries are really concerned about Nepal, we shouldn't have this sort of non-issue of opening ceremonies or not. They should do the hard work of quiet diplomacy to urge the Chinese government -- in their interest -- to take advantage of this opportunity to do something,” Hadley said.

He continued: “What he’s doing on Nepal is what we think the international community ought to be doing, which is approaching the Chinese privately through diplomatic channels and sending a very firm message of concern for human rights, concern for what’s happening in Nepal.”

Nepal? Wake up, Stephen.

Maybe he got confused earlier in the morning reading a briefing on the Maoists capturing the constituent assembly in Saturday’s elections in Nepal, and had a synapse lapse. After all, the Maoist leader Prachanda is now a lawmaker in Nepal.

Or is that Tibet?

The source of a lot of China's jade

We’ve got some smart readers out there. And the winners are Daryl, Liar Liar, Rich and Sue. If you were drawn into yesterday’s contest, taking a guess at what is in the hands of the gentlemen in the photo, you’ll soon find out. No, it’s not rice. Nor Chinese currency. Nor crickets. They are holding pieces of jade. As Daryl correctly deduced, the photo was taken at an outdoor jade market in Khotan (Hetian), a former Silk Road oasis.

Khotan is on the edge of the sprawling Taklimakan Desert. If you don’t have a map near you, just imagine being in the far west of China near the borders with Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, Pakistan and even Tajikistan.

Khotan is a major source of jade for China, and many traders come to the city. Much of the digging for jade is done by the local Uyghurs, who are a Muslim minority in China. Chinese love jade. As one Chinese saying goes, "Gold has value; jade is invaluable.".

While walking through shops and the market, I saw jade in green, black, red, mottled and white. I couldn’t find much logic in how it is priced, but that is not to say there isn’t one. I bought myself a little rock. Price: 30 yuan, or about four U.S. dollars.

A fine dust was suspended in the air throughout our stay in Khotan, and one local resident said the city experiences such dust and sand storms about 100 days of the year.

I’m including one photo below because I was struck by the woman. Burqas, the complete body coverings that are common on women in Afghanistan, are not permitted in China. But you can see the woman in the photo uses something pretty darn similar. It completely covers her head, without slits for the eyes. This is not an uncommon site in far west Xinjiang. And if I had to prognosticate, I would say Uyghur women in China will start wearing more of this kind of garb. Why? Well, you’ll just have to read my upcoming story to find out. I'll post a link when it's ready. I'm also posting a short video of a Uyghur woman weaving in a carpet factory. The workers make 15 yuan a day, or about $2.

What are these Chinese holding?

I’ve been out in the Xinjiang autonomous region of far Western China for much of this week. Here’s a little contest. Can anyone figure out what the people in the photo have in their hands?

I won’t name the city because that’ll give a clue to the China experts. Suffice it to say that what they hold in their hands is practically a national symbol of China.

Being straight with China

Kevin Rudd displayed some *cojones on his first trip to China as Australia’s prime minister.

In a speech this morning at Peking University, Rudd was not afraid to speak his mind even though the Australian economy is reliant on China’s appetite for its natural resources (iron ore, uranium, natural gas).

Speaking in fluent Mandarin, Rudd told the Chinese students that “there are significant human rights problems in Tibet.”

Here’s the relevant part of the speech:

This year, as China hosts the Olympics, the eyes of the world will be on you and the city of Beijing.

It will be a chance for China to engage directly with the world, both on the sports field and on the streets of Beijing.

Some have called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics because of recent problems in Tibet.

As I said in London on Sunday, I do not agree.

I believe the Olympics are important for China’s continuing engagement with the world.

Australia like most other countries recognises China’s sovereignty over Tibet.

But we also believe it is necessary to recognise there are significant human rights problem in Tibet.

The current situation in Tibet is of concern to Australians.

We recognise the need for all parties to avoid violence and find a solution through dialogue.

As a long-standing friend of China I intend to have a straightforward discussion with China’s leaders on this.

We wish to see the year 2008 as one of harmony, and celebration – not one of conflict and contention.

Rudd is a former diplomat in Beijing, and perhaps his Chinese-language abilities are buying him some leeway in being straightforward with his hosts. Rudd, by the way, is the first major foreign leader to visit China following the Tibet unrest. The Australian, a national newspaper, immediately polled some students, and here is what the paper put on its website:

Although Mr Rudd's comments about "significant human rights problems in Tibet," might draw ire from his hosts Premier Wen Jiabao and President Hu Jintao, China's top students appeared unfazed.

Many went so far as to agree with Mr Rudd that handling ongoing unrest in Tibet peacefully and through dialogue was the best way to resolve the issue that has placed China's communist leaders under the global spotlight for nearly a month.

"I agreed with what he said," Li Yang, a graduate student in environmental sciences, said following the speech.

"The Tibetan issue should be resolved without violence and through dialogue, this is correct."

Although Mr Rudd's speech touched on many such sensitive issues, he also received praise for voicing intentions to become a friend in the true Chinese tradition, who can "offer unflinching advice and counsels restraint".

"His Chinese is very good, he speaks Chinese very well," said Hong Ziyun, a first year law student. "He really understands Chinese history and culture."

* Cojones is Mexican slang for testicles.

The Olympic Flame Security Team

You can call them the boys in blue and white.

They are the protection team of beefy Chinese security guards that surround the Olympic torch on its travels around the world. You can see a couple of the guys in the photo in the posting below. They wear blue and white track suits with the Olympics logo.

From the Chinese perspective, these well-trained guys are essential to prevent disruption of the torch relay. The Chinese press this morning is full of references to how inefficient the London bobbies and the French gendarmes have been in fending off protesters trying to douse the flame.

Of course, many people overseas wonder what kind of diplomatic arrangement has allowed this so-called Sacred Flame Protection Unit to operate overseas -- and whether the members are armed. Word is that the boys in blue and white are People’s Armed Police cadets.

The British press is in a lather over their presence in London streets.

A London Daily Mail story began this way:

Lord Coe last night condemned the army of Chinese "thugs" who accompanied the Olympic torch relay through London.

The head of London's 2012 Games described as "horrible" the burly henchmen who barged their way through the capital, shoving the public and even police out of the way.

His trenchant remarks followed those of former Blue Peter presenter and torchbearer Konnie Huq, who revealed the Chinese minders barked orders at her and pushed her arm up to hold the flame higher.

Sunday's scenes, which were repeated in France yesterday, brought accusations that Britain had imported Chinese police state tactics to control the supposedly showcase relay.

Keep your eyes peeled to see if the boys and blue and white are given free rein on the streets of San Francisco, where the torch goes next.

Protesting the Olympic torch relay

If the mayhem during the London Olympic torch relay was any indication, it’s gonna be a long journey before the torch gets to Beijing for the Summer Games.

The photo above is of a protester during the relay Sunday in London.

An unnamed official quoted by the state Xinhua news agency slammed the protests.

“Today a tiny number of Tibet independence elements sought to disrupt the relay of the Olympic Games sacred flame through London,” said an unnamed spokesperson of the Beijing Olympic Games torch relay office.

“We strongly condemn this vile behaviour.”

And guess where that torch goes after Paris? You bet, San Francisco. Let the Games begin! Could “Pin the Demonstrator Down” become a new Olympic sport?

The lives of expats in Beijing

There were two very different faces of the expatriate experience in Beijing this past weekend. I’ll start with the cheerier one.

We strolled a few blocks to the convention center at the China World complex and saw a huge trade show for foreign residents. I’m not sure how many foreigners now live in Beijing. I’ve heard it’s over 100,000 (more than 40,000 South Koreans alone). But the show underscored the point that foreigners spend big money in Beijing.

There were anywhere between 60 and 100 booths. Local health clinics, exclusive housing compounds, luxury vacation destinations all had stands. There was one for an air purifying system. Trek bicycles had a booth. So did the big sporting goods chain Decathlon. What particularly struck me were all the booths for private schools, which are particularly costly in Beijing. It can routinely cost $20,000 per year to send a child to a private school here. Yet there must have been at least 10 booths for different big schools.

On a less cheery note, I got a call from a British colleague who said his son had nearly got caught up in a periodic police raid in Sanlitun, which is a nightlife hub in Beijing.

A virtual SWAT team descended on an ally that is very popular with the young expat crowd (teen-agers, twentysomethings) and started checking for drugs. They were particularly rigorous in checking whether everyone had their documents in order.

A young woman named Sophia posted about the incident on the Beijing Boyce blog:

“Especially that they approached us with guns, they had no right to come running at us and point with their guns at us and shout “sit down” and “shut up”.

“And as well they didn’t even make us empty our pockets. What kind of drug raid is that where they just watch you sit on the ground and as soon as you move you just get shouted at and you have guns pointed at you. Even my friend that was inside pure girl didn’t get touched. they only searched the guys.

“That night scared me so badly and just seeing the police running at us with those big black guns, that image is stuck in my head now…

Get used to it, guys. Foreigners are increasingly in the crosshairs of the authorities. I was speaking with a senior U.N. official based here and he was grumbling about the increased restrictions on foreigners. I asked what he meant. “More ID checking, housing checking. They have also increased arrests and deportations of foreigners.” With worries high about activists and their possible shenanigans at the Summer Olympics, he said, “they just suspect everybody who doesn’t look Chinese.”

China geeks vs. U.S. geeks

It looks like a geek vs. geek battle is shaping up. You’ve probably seen the stories about worldwide cyber attacks and denial of service campaigns. As I recall, there was a cyber intrusion even into the office of the secretary of defense in the Pentagon and into the office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

The news stories in the West say the attacks generally come from within China.

The Chinese don’t divulge when they come under attack but you can bet this is a two-way street.

Now comes this story that acknowledges the U.S. military is looking at offensive cyber capabilities as well as defensive ones. The U.S. Air Force is setting up a formal Cyber Command, and it apparently will exist only virtually. On paper it will temporarily operate out of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, but there will be no there there.

From the article: "We haven't done a good job in the cyber-domain just yet. …We have to demonstrate the capability to do [rapid forensics] then message that to our adversaries. For deterrence we have to clearly identify the attacker. We're working on rapid forensics to determine who the adversary is," said Lt. Gen. Robert J. Elder Jr., commander of the Eighth Air Force.

There's more here and here.

A PR challenge for China

According to this report in the Financial Times, China is going shopping for a PR company to repair its image in the wake of the Tibet crisis.

That image, like it or not, appears to be in tatters.

A group of us were speaking yesterday with John Kamm, head of the Dui Hua Foundation. Kamm, a businessman-turned-human rights strategist, is a recipient of one of those MacArthur “genius” grants for his amazing work in what he likes to call the “extraction” business – getting political prisoners out of jail in China.

Kamm’s foundation, based in San Francisco, works a lot with European governments. He noted that he’s on his fifth round-the-world trip so far in the past year. So he’s got his finger pretty well on the pulse of liberal Western images of China.

“What gives me some hope is that I think there’s some recognition … on the part of Chinese officials that China’s image has taken a beating,” Kamm said. “It’s as bad as it’s been since Tiananmen.”

Kamm noted that Chinese officials could hardly feel more upbeat about domestic support. Most Han Chinese are united in anger at ethnic Tibetans over the uprisings, and frustration that foreigners dare criticize how it is handling the matter. But therein lies the huge gap between the domestic and international audiences.

And since China doesn’t live in a vacuum, and despite the isolationist voices that seem to be emerging (quite oddly, considering how China largely survives from an export economy), it’s got to deal with this gap.

Kamm suggested China could start by laying off the Dalai Lama bashing.

“If you counter a negative with a negative, you don’t help yourself,” he said. “If international public opinion is against you, it doesn’t help if you call the Dalai Lama a bunch of names.”

He suggested China take some steps like freeing the remaining 60 to 100 Chinese still in prison for crimes related to the Tiananmen pro-democracy uprising nearly two decades ago. Such a move would put June 4, 1989, completely in the past, he said. He also suggested China could get goodwill by buying helicopters to the international force in Sudan’s Darfur region. China could justify it to the nation by noting that its own troops are there, and they need helicopters.

Those are his ideas. I’m sure a PR agency will come up with its own ideas. It wouldn’t surprise me to see some startling move to right the ship in the coming few months.

A final note: For those who want to understand better the infuriating gap between Chinese and foreign views on Tibet, please read this translation on Roland Soong’s blog of a Chinese employee in a German company and his interaction with his co-workers. It’ll give you insight into the sensitivities at stake. 

Anger at foreign journalists

The fax machine hummed to life, and out popped the kind of “warning” that many foreign correspondents in China are getting these days.

It was a tirade specifically against CNN over its coverage of Tibet. But it condemned all foreign reporters in language that bordered on threat.

“If you go on acting like CNN, get out of China. Chinese people do not welcome you,” it concluded. The writer signed off simply as “a Chinese person.”

China is in the midst of one of its periodic cycles of intense nationalism. The riots in Lhasa last month left a wake of anger and indignation among the majority ethnic Han Chinese, and they see any defense of Tibetans as a sign of latent anti-Chinese sentiment. The easy targets of this wrath are foreign journalists.

All it takes is a glance around the internet forums and bulletin boards on the Chinese internet to feel how palpable the nationalism. Heck, just read some of the comments attached to recent postings on this blog. Many of them shed a lot more heat than light. The last time this kind of nationalism arose was in April 2005, when anti-Japanese protests erupted in major cities. 

Already some of my foreign colleagues have had to temporarily vacate their offices in Beijing because of these threats. 

Here are a couple of comments on the new forum that somebody set up at www.anti-cnn.com just to give you the flavor. You can see that a desire for revenge is a theme, but revenge against whom or what? Last time, it was the Japanese. Who will it be next time?

“I don't want to see my motherland being humiliated like this. Was there any human rights or equality when the Eight-power allied force invaded China? Western imperialism is obviously besieging China. Shouldn't we do something about it? Germany, France and the U.S. don't deserve to say these things. Tibet has belonged to China before these countries were even founded. That’s the truth." Signed Yuguo Wujiang

“Making China really strong is our primary task. . . . There are lots of things we should learn from the West. However, for a gentleman to take revenge, ten years is not too late (to wait). Proper patience is for a better counterattack!" Signed zajcn

I can only hope that the anger associated with this nationalism dies down well before the Olympic Games. Otherwise China will have difficulty reconciling its Olympic slogan of “One World, One Dream” with the evident antipathy some of its citizens feel for certain outsiders.