Page 9 of 27

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:22
by shiv
I prefer short 4-7 minute videos to the 60 minute ones. (Short attention span. Brain RAM is small :D )

Interesting, if pukeworthy narrative of Mao and what he did. People who experienced much of this are in their 40s and 50s in China.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU6ZcmQiiV8

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 06:57
by wig
riots in kashgar, sinkiang .excerpts
At least 12 people were killed in riots Tuesday near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media reported.

No details were given about what might have set off the violence, although Xinjiang see periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by restless members of the region's native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group.

The Xinhua News Agency said rioters armed with knives attacked victims in Yecheng county outside the city starting at about 6 p.m. They killed 10 people and police shot two assailants to death, the report said. The Xinhua report could not be independently confirmed. Chinese authorities maintain tight control over information and the circumstances surrounding such incidents are often murky.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 14,00.html

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 07:01
by paramu
jagbani wrote:Antony said Arunachal is an integral part of India as Jammu and Kashmir and as defence minister it was his right and duty to visit the state, which has recently celebrated 25th anniversary of its statehood. "I was surprised to see such a reaction.
True. Antony should not have responded like this. Just say the it is not worth responding to the China concern.

We don't have any dispute with China about AP. If PRC claims it, that would be like we claiming Yunnan province as part of India.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 21:08
by gunjur
The deep distrust America has of China's economic expansion calls to mind Europe's 19th-century fears over "commercial invasion" by a rapidly emerging nation. Striking parallels between modern China's rise and the heady days of the United States' "Gilded Age" are best glimpsed not through thick history books, but in the personal accounts of young Yankees.

Young America and China's dream

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 29 Feb 2012 21:18
by arun
X Posted from the Islamism thread.

In P.R. China, axe wielding Mohammaddens run amok in an area mostly occupied by Non-Mohammaddens resulting in 12 fatalities.

AFP via Google:

Deadly attack on market in China's Xinjiang: police

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 01 Mar 2012 11:13
by Roperia
At statehood event, Arunachal officer denied visa by China leads fly-past
In a message not likely to be lost on China, Arunachal Pradesh’s own Mohonto Panging led the fly-past by three Sukhoi-30 aircraft as Defence Minister A K Antony inaugurated a festival here today to mark 25 years of Arunachal attaining statehood. Panging incidentally was denied visa by Beijing recently for a trip as part of a defence delegation.
Now I see what caused the heartburn in China. :rotfl:

Simon Denyer of The Washington Post reports

New tensions in India-China border dispute raise concerns

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 08:19
by Philip
"lah-ho-axe" in Xinjiang!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/fe ... riots-dead

China riots leave 12 people dead
Violence breaks out in north-western region of Xinjiang, where Uighurs took part in anti-government riots last year

Xcpt:
At least 12 people have been killed in riots near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang, state media reported.

No details were given about what might have set off the violence, although Xinjiang sees periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by members of the region's native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group.

The Xinhua news agency said rioters armed with knives had attacked victims in Yecheng county outside the city starting at about 6pm. They killed 10 people and police shot dead two assailants, the report said.

The Xinhua report could not be independently confirmed. Chinese authorities maintain tight control over information and the circumstances surrounding such incidents are often murky.

Xinhua said police were chasing others involved in the attacks but did not say how many suspects there were.

The periodic attacks in the region occur despite a smothering security presence imposed following 2009 riots in the regional capital of Urumqi that pitted Uighurs against migrants from China's majority Han in which almost 200 people died.

Xinjiang saw more deadly violence last summer, when a group of Uighurs stormed a police station in the city of Hotan on 18 July and took hostages, killing four. Then, just days later on 30 and 31 July, Uighurs in Kashgar hijacked a truck, set a restaurant on fire and stabbed people in the street.

Authorities said 14 of the attackers were shot by police in Hotan, and five assailants were killed in the violence in Kashgar.

China says those events were organised terror attacks, but an overseas Uighur rights group says they were anti-government riots carried out by angry citizens. Uighur activists and security analysts blame the violence on economic marginalisation and restrictions on Uighur culture and the Muslim religion that are breeding frustration and anger among young Uighurs.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 08:44
by ManuT
Chinese police may have power to disappear people

The Associated Press, Updated: March 01, 2012 19:12 IST

http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/chine ... herstories

Beijing: China is preparing to overhaul a key criminal law amid public confusion - and some dread - over whether the government is about to give police the legal authority to disappear people. :shock:

At issue is an amendment to the criminal procedure law that would allow police to secretly detain suspects for months without informing their families. The effect would be to legalize the secret detentions police have increasingly been using against political critics, activist lawyers and other dissidents. Activist Hu Jia, himself living under a form of house arrest, has dubbed it the "KGB clause." 8)

The proposed powers, when first mooted in a draft released last summer, caused uproar among legal scholars, who called them dangerous, and ordinary Chinese, who posted comments online to the government's draft by the tens of thousands.

Now, as the national legislature prepares to pass the revised law during its annual session which starts Monday, it isn't clear whether the proposed changes are still in the bill. New drafts have not been released, as is typical in China. One well-connected scholar claims the clause has been excised out, but others say it's uncertain or won't say. :lol:

Chi Shusheng, a lawmaker and lawyer from Heilongjiang province with a reputation for defending human rights, said she last saw the revised law in January.

"I think there's been some progress," Chi said. She wouldn't elaborate.

Members of the National People's Congress legal committee, who advise the drafting of the law, declined to talk.

"Wait until the final version comes out," said Zhou Guangquan, a legal scholar and committee member. "It's not convenient for me to discuss it now."
Chinese laws are generally crafted by the central government behind closed doors with little public consultation, though there have been experiments with increased transparency in recent years. The precise reasons for the secrecy aren't entirely clear, but seem borne out of habit and expediency.

Behind the uncertainty is a tug of war between people who think China needs greater legal protections to keep advancing, and the security establishment and politicians who see a strong Communist Party as the best guarantee of the country's continuing success.

Chinese society, poor and egalitarian 30 years ago, has been stratified as decades of economic reforms create droves of millionaires and push up a new middle class while leaving behind others. People increasingly turn to the law to protect their rights and to protest when other methods don't work.

More open Chinese media and the Internet have raised awareness about miscarriages of justice, such as wrongful convictions, and the need for legal safeguards.

"People are increasingly realizing that procedural justice matters," said Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights researcher based in Hong Kong. "There is also a general sense too that public power, the power of the state, needs to be checked."

The proposed revisions to the criminal procedure law, last amended 15 years ago, attempt to address the changing demands of this remade society. It includes rules on the exclusion of illegally obtained evidence and enshrines the privilege against self-incrimination, both measures meant to better protect detainees, said Flora Sapio, a visiting scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an expert on Chinese law.

For the most part, though, the overhaul consolidates existing rules and regulations without significantly breaking new ground, Sapio said.

The controversial exception is the expansion of police powers in Article 73 on "residential surveillance," a kind of house arrest without charge. The August draft said police could hold suspects under residential surveillance - at a fixed location outside their home - for up to six months without notifying families in cases involving state security or terrorism or if notification would impede the investigation.

In practice, police have disappeared regime critics, from Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo and his wife to prominent avant-garde artist Ai Weiwei, who disappeared into police custody for nearly three months last year.

Ai's wife Lu Qing, who was distraught over the official silence during her husband's disappearance, has written an open letter to the government saying that codifying the more muscular powers for police would mark a "legal setback for China and deterioration of human rights."

The outcry may have had some effect. One prominent Beijing legal scholar, Chen Guangzhong, said this week that Article 73 has been changed from its August version and now requires that families be notified within 24 hours if a relative is put under residential surveillance in all cases except when the family cannot be reached.

Chen said he has not seen the latest version himself but was informed of the change by a colleague who he declined to identify. Chen was among the more vocal critics of the August draft when it came out.

"Personally speaking, I am relatively satisfied," said the 82-year-old tenured professor at the Chinese University of Political Science and Law in Beijing

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 09:25
by shiv
Philip wrote:"lah-ho-axe" in Xinjiang!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/fe ... riots-dead

China riots leave 12 people dead
Violence breaks out in north-western region of Xinjiang, where Uighurs took part in anti-government riots last year

Xcpt:
At least 12 people have been killed in riots near the Chinese city of Kashgar in the restive north-western region of Xinjiang, state media reported.

No details were given about what might have set off the violence, although Xinjiang sees periodic outbreaks of anti-government violence by members of the region's native Turkish Muslim Uighur ethnic group.
In reply to that
arun wrote:The veneer of “Deeper than Ocean’s” and “Higher than Himalaya’s” friendship of the Momin for Kaafir’s peels off with Momin Mohammadden elements in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan going to bat for Mohammaddens living in areas occupied by Kaafir P.R. China:

Pakistani militants say Chinese woman killed for revenge
China and Pakistan are allies and friends. The Chinese should excuse the Pakistanis for such minor misdemeanors. After all the Chinese have 1.3 billion people and the deaths of a few should not matte- considering Pakistan's importance.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 09:39
by pralay
China must act hard now,
China must give ultimatum to the terrorists "Stop killing chinese or we wont supply you weapons" :rotfl:

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 09:48
by shiv
sameer_shelavale wrote:
China must act hard now,
China must give ultimatum to the terrorists "Stop killing chinese or we wont supply you weapons" :rotfl:
No No. The Chinese are clever. They all read Sun Tzu. They will mollycoddle the Pakis. The Pakis too are clever. They love the pork eaters because they get arms in Pork oil. Who cares if a few people are killed? China has many people who can be killed and China won't notice the difference. And Muslims - you know, they welcome death.

The friendship is paramount! :rotfl:

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 12:34
by kmkraoind
The writing is on wall. Its called excessive auto immunity, in medical parlance I call it Chronic Chipaikana Leukemia (going down to paikana with chipak due to excessive green immune cells that devours everything).

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 02 Mar 2012 21:53
by Prem Kumar
Cross-posting from a couple of other threads:

I had posted this in the China Military Watch yesterday:
Prem Kumar wrote:From today's Rediff - not exactly a military move but if true, this could be construed as an "act of aggression":

http://www.rediff.com/news/slide-show/s ... 120301.htm

They could be testing the waters, pun intended

Will be interesting to see MEA response
Following this, I had tweeted yesterday the following:
Betting Rs. 100 that the Chindu won't report this. Even if they do, it'll be the Xinhua response to this event!!
BINGO - see today's Chindu:

China rejects reports of Brahmaputra diversion

This has been Chindu's Modus Operandi for quite some time. Dont report the news on the original Chinese provocative event. However, report the Chinese response a day or two later, which makes reference to the original event. This way, the Chindu presents the Chinese viewpoint, while at the same time they cannot be accused of "ignoring" the news item.

Anti-national douche-bags.

Take note Ramana-garu: nothing has changed in the Hindu between Naxal Ram and Sid. The animal is still the same - only wearing different clothes now.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 03 Mar 2012 00:20
by Prem
shiv wrote:
sameer_shelavale wrote:No No. The Chinese are clever. They all read Sun Tzu. They will mollycoddle the Pakis. The Pakis too are clever. They love the pork eaters because they get arms in Pork oil. Who cares if a few people are killed? China has many people who can be killed and China won't notice the difference. And Muslims - you know, they welcome death.
The friendship is paramount! :rotfl:
But its true that China has more toliets and chopsticks than India .

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 03 Mar 2012 01:18
by heech
shiv wrote:I prefer short 4-7 minute videos to the 60 minute ones. (Short attention span. Brain RAM is small :D )

Interesting, if pukeworthy narrative of Mao and what he did. People who experienced much of this are in their 40s and 50s in China.
Not quite. Someone who's 50 would've been born in 1962, and wouldn't have personally experienced the worst of the cultural revolution, and would've been just 14 when Mao died in 1976.

The Hu Jintao generation, the current generation of leadership about to leave history by the end of this year, is really the last generation to have directly experienced life under Mao as adults.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 03 Mar 2012 06:44
by shiv
heech wrote:
shiv wrote:I prefer short 4-7 minute videos to the 60 minute ones. (Short attention span. Brain RAM is small :D )

Interesting, if pukeworthy narrative of Mao and what he did. People who experienced much of this are in their 40s and 50s in China.
Not quite. Someone who's 50 would've been born in 1962, and wouldn't have personally experienced the worst of the cultural revolution, and would've been just 14 when Mao died in 1976.
er..did you listen to the dates on the video?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
Cultural Revolution (Chinese: 文化大革命; pinyin: Wénhuà Dàgémìng), was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976.
A person born in 1963 would have been 12 in 1975, in the middle of the cultural revolution and would be be 49 today. Anyone over 10 is usually aware of what is happening in the world around him and his parents.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 12:40
by Roperia
China's defence spending to exceed $100 billion
China has announced it will increase defence pending by 11.2 per cent in 2012, taking its military expenditure to $106.39 billion and marking a return to double-digit growth amid plans to modernise its armed forces during a year that will see a crucial leadership transition.
...
India's defence expenditure was reported at $36 billion in the 2011-12 budget — one-third of what China will spend this year.
With economy barely making it to 7%, fiscal deficit hovering at around 6% (as opposed to government's aim of 9% and 4.5% respectively) and the growing social spending in the from of food security bill, I'm skeptical Indian Def Budget will even make it to $40 billion.

PS - I'm not against more social spending but right now its poorly managed and most money ends up in coffers of the middleman.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 17:13
by JohnTitor
..while our babus are reducing spending. Sad, very sad :( ... especially after reading the below para.

"It is doubtful whether the message will get across because most countries know that the real budget is at least double the published one," said Willy Lam, a leading China expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 04 Mar 2012 18:25
by Rahul M
shiv wrote: No No. The Chinese are clever. They all read Sun Tzu. They will mollycoddle the Pakis. The Pakis too are clever. They love the pork eaters because they get arms in Pork oil. Who cares if a few people are killed? China has many people who can be killed and China won't notice the difference. And Muslims - you know, they welcome death.

The friendship is paramount! :rotfl:
may be hu will take a lead out of mao's book and offer a few million chinese women to pakistan ! :lol:

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 02:11
by Prem
Double-digit rise for China’s defence spending
http://www.dawn.com/2012/03/04/double-d ... nding.html
BEIJING: China said Sunday its military spending would top $100 billion in 2012 – a double-digit increase on last year – in a move likely to fuel concerns about Beijing’s rapid military build-up.
The defence budget will rise 11.2 per cent to 670.27 billion yuan ($106.41 billion), said Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for China’s national parliament, citing a budget report submitted to the country’s rubber-stamp legislature.The figure marks a slowdown from 2011 when spending rose by 12.7 per cent but is still likely to fuel worries over China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia-Pacific region and push its neighbours to forge closer ties with the United States.Li described the budget as “relatively low” as a percentage of gross domestic product compared with other countries and said it was aimed at “safeguarding sovereignty, national security and territorial integrity

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 11:03
by jamwal
Chinese Man Kills Vendor After Realizing He Was Sold A Fake iPhone
29-year-old Feng had bought a fake Apple IPhone from a dealer in the street.

When he found out that the IPhone was fake he carried a kitchen knife with him to the plaza, and was looking for the crook seller in the 27 Plaza for several days. In the process of looking for the person sold him the phone, he bumped into another group of fake cellphone dealers and started a dispute with them. In rage, Feng stabbed one of them to death with his kitchen knife.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 16:34
by Roperia
Al Jazeera inside story (24 min Video) Is an India-China arms race brewing?

The context is the military exercise "Pralay" conducted by India in AP and the double digit increase of defense spending by China.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 05 Mar 2012 22:55
by member_20317
jamwal wrote:Chinese Man Kills Vendor After Realizing He Was Sold A Fake iPhone
29-year-old Feng had bought a fake Apple IPhone from a dealer in the street.

When he found out that the IPhone was fake he carried a kitchen knife with him to the plaza, and was looking for the crook seller in the 27 Plaza for several days. In the process of looking for the person sold him the phone, he bumped into another group of fake cellphone dealers and started a dispute with them. In rage, Feng stabbed one of them to death with his kitchen knife.

Chinese Man & his iPhone

The Doorbell rang & the Chinaman put his ear to his iphone.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 09 Mar 2012 00:44
by ManuT
8 March 2012 Last updated at 06:24 ET

Chinese leader Bo Xilai's meeting absence creates stir

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17295917
Bo Xilai, the Communist Party chief of Chongqing city, was not in his usual seat at a session of China's annual parliament.

He was expected to gain a senior post in the party reshuffle this year.

But a scandal involving his police chief has tarnished his reputation.

At China's annual National People's Congress, Mr Bo usually sits with his colleagues from the Communist Party's politburo. But at the latest meeting, he failed to take his place.

China's national broadcaster filmed these top leaders as they listened to a speech, and stopped short just before getting to the seat usually occupied by Mr Bo. {What's the big deal} :-?

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 23:49
by ManuT
China's social networks hit by censorship, says study
9 March 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17313793
Chinese censors are actively targeting social media to quash discussion of banned topics, suggests research.

The US study gives the most in-depth look at the extent of China's policing of discussions on microblogging sites.

...
...

That system, known as the Great Firewall, stops people visiting some sites outside China, returns no results for searches of banned terms, censors chat and vets blogs. Banned topics include the Falun Gong spiritual movement and human rights activist Ai Weiwei.

In a similar way, the study found that messages containing these banned terms tended to be deleted from the Sina Weibo service.

It also found that the censorship system could be quite nimble and react quickly when words or phrases start to assume a more political meaning. For instance, the word "lianghui" became sensitive when it started to be used as a code word for a "planned protest".

Similarly, a word meaning "asking someone to resign" became sensitive in the wake of the high speed train crash in July 2011 that killed 40 people. Mistakes by officials have been blamed for leading to the disaster.

The study also found significant variation in how active the system was in different regions of China. In Tibet about 50% of messages were deleted, compared to 12% in Beijing and 11% in Shanghai.

Mr Bamman said he was surprised at the extent of the censorship and at the fact that some banned terms, such as Falun Gong, were appearing at all.

"The fact that we see these terms in messages would seem to imply that the censorship is not an automatic process," he told the BBC. This exposed, he said, the tension between government demands for active policing and reluctance on the part of companies to inhibit what their customers do.

He speculated that the sheer amount of messages passing through the social media services might also make it harder to censor all the content the government finds troubling.

And, he added, many people would find ways around the controls.

"People will talk about what they want to talk about," he said, "they may just have to find different ways to say it."

A paper detailing the study is due to be published in the March edition of the First Monday journal.
I wonder if the word "soul" is censored too.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 23:52
by ManuT
Chongqing leader Bo Xilai speaks on deputy scandal

9 March 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17308856

I had a cough and was not feeling well, was Mr Bo's comment on Friday.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 10 Mar 2012 23:57
by ManuT
China rights situation deteriorating, say activists

9 March 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17314551

The report added this "conveyed a warning to the ordinary Chinese citizens: anyone who challenges the government will be punished".

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 11 Mar 2012 06:59
by shiv
Rhetorical question. If the Chinese can make a J-20 at 1/10 the cost of an F-22 and in less than half the time, where is the difficulty in creating a fake iPhone that works as well as the real one and is inexpensive?

To explain that you have to invoke the Pakistan explanation.
You see the J-20 is as good or better than the best because the Chinese can and do produce copies as good as the original. iPhones too. This news item about a stabbing is just a rare instance of a one-off crook cheating a man. Criminals exist in all cultures. Do you know how many murders were there in India last year? People in glass houses should not throw stones. If you check back the record the IAF which has 1/3 the number of aircraft the PLAAF has, had over a dozen crashes last year. The PLAAF had just one or less than one. Google for reports if you like and produce at least one report of a PLAAF crash last year. I challenge you.
Not surprising that Pakistan and China are allies.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 11:51
by kmkraoind
China reports large trade deficit as imports surge

It seem the Chinese deficit is a false flag. The deficit is mainly due to China stockpiling every commodity in huge quantities. Its even stockpiling Cotton, which cried foul when India stopped its exports. Something is not boding well. It seems China is preparing for an economic or real war. Better to watch out and there are no coincidences in war and politics.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 12:27
by g.sarkar
Rahul M wrote: may be hu will take a lead out of mao's book and offer a few million chinese women to pakistan ! :lol:
No, Sir. Days of phree ka maal are long gone. Just saw a program on the documentary channel of women being trafficked from East Europe to all over the world. The commentator showed Dubai, a destination for these women and said that the cheapest come from China and the most expensive are Arab women.
Gautam

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 18:12
by Singha
on another note, the sense I get is Eastern europe is facing a really bleak future in economic and social terms
- the promised outsourced manufacturing/services boom post cold war and post EU integration kind of fizzled out
- unemployment is high, and lots of highly skilled people are employed but not in the best circumstances
- govts are not rich enough like northern europe to keep giving lavish benefits
- the young and talented are getting out in any way they can to northern europe or farther out

some quaint pockets of tourism remain, but other than that I am not seeing bulgaria, the remnants of yugoslavia, romania, czech slovak twins, slovenia, hungary emerging as major players on the world stage. and these are likely the countries most vulnerable to illegal immigration rackets / forced labour / slavery gangs...

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 12 Mar 2012 21:43
by svinayak
Talked to a Chinese person who just returned recently.
The person says the future of China is difficult from now and the mfg jobs cannot be sustained in china.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 13 Mar 2012 01:17
by r_subramanian
On corruption in China, from The Australian online edition
Top to bottom, a culture of payola in China
THE mid-level official whose wife drives a Lexus, the electricity supervisor who owns a flat for his mistress, the sons and daughters of low-ranking government employees who think nothing of dropping a few thousand dollars on an afternoon shopping trip - China's corruption rate is astonishing even to its cynical citizens.
Systemic corruption continues to escalate, with the number of officials being investigated last year increasing. It poses a serious threat to the country's wellbeing, with 29,000 people (not all of them government officials) being convicted for bribery , embezzlement and malfeasance by the courts last year.
...
While the government has declared the prosecutions a step-up in its much talked-about battle with corruption, most Chinese take another view as the local party secretary's son whizzes past in his yellow Maserati. "What is exposed to the public is just the tip of the iceberg and many of the cases are only the result of an (internal party) power struggle among the officials." Li Xinde, director of China Public Opinion Supervision Web, an NGO engaged in anti-corruption, said yesterday.
"Corruption is prevailing. Though measures against it, and theories of how to deal with it, have been thoroughly discussed in past years, no sign of any real containment to corruption has occurred," Mr Li said
link
To read the article you must either register or take the help of Google.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 01:19
by ManuT
12 March 2012 
China's leaders jockey for top posts

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-17309027
There are no opinion polls, no official candidates, not even a declared race - but a political campaign has begun in China.

Senior politicians are vying to secure promotion when the Chinese Communist Party reshuffles its top leaders later this year.

Some are using China's annual parliamentary session, currently taking place in Beijing, to push their competing claims.

Whoever emerges at the top of the party will have been selected by senior leaders using an unknown process at secret meetings.

Chinese citizens will not be involved.


China will begin the process of handing over power to a new group of leaders at the end of this year when the party holds its 18th congress.

Seven out of nine people on the party's politburo standing committee - the country's most important decision-making body - are due to retire.

Xi Jinping, the current vice-president, and Vice-Premier Li Keqiang are the only ones expected to retain their seats.
The 55-year-old is one of a growing band of people who want to join the political system in order to have a say in how the country is run.

But like others before her, she now knows that the Chinese Communist Party has little patience with those that might oppose it.

Ms Ye was one of dozens of independent candidates who tried to stand at elections for district-level people's congresses, local government bodies below the NPC currently taking place in Beijing.

She wanted to stand in Beijing's Xicheng district.
She said that when she tried to stand as a candidate, she was harassed by the police, roughed up and ultimately prevented from putting her name forward.

"At first I thought they'd let me stand, but as it went on, it became too difficult. The suppression was outrageous," she said.

Undeterred, she campaigned anyway, standing in residential compounds handing out leaflets and telling residents about her intentions.

When voting day came, she put her own name on the ballot paper - as you are legally entitled to do in China - and urged her supporters to do the same.

Ms Ye does not know how many votes she received that day though, as the number cast for each candidate was never made public.

"The Chinese government doesn't really want true democracy," she said afterwards.

That certainly seems to be the case at the moment.

Chinese top leaders are currently engrossed in a battle to see which of them will shape the country in the coming decade.{So basically, it is like the Burmese junta on steroids.}

But that fight will largely bypass the people they will end up governing.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 11:56
by kmkraoind
Wen says China needs political reform, warns of another Cultural Revolution if without - Xinhua
"Now reforms in China have come to a critical stage," Wen said, warning: "without a successful political reform, it's impossible for China to fully institute economic reform and the gains we have made in these areas may be lost, and new problems that popped up in the Chinese society will not be fundamentally resolved, and such historical tragedies as the Cultural Revolution may happen again in China."

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 12:10
by shyamd
They are clearly worried.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 13:39
by svinayak
http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/ER/detail/hkul/4351332
Clearer than truth" : determining and preserving grand strategy. The evolution of American policy toward the People's Republic of China under Truman and Nixon


Author Crowley, Monica Elizabeth
ISBN/ISSN 9780599751422
Broad Subject Political science


Summary This dissertation attempts to establish a theoretical bridge between international explanations and domestic political explanations for how and why nations determine, sell, then modify, their core grand strategies. It is a two-level approach to explain why leaders manipulate low-level conflicts to mobilize popular support for expensive, long-term security strategies, and then once the grand strategy is established and the mobilization underway, how and why leaders adapt policies that support it. The interaction between international circumstances and domestic politics is crucial to determining how and why leaders manipulate conflict and ideology---either by stressing or de-stressing them---in order to mobilize support at home for the grand strategy or to preserve that support when it appears threatened.
The evolution of U.S. policy toward the PRC during the Truman and Nixon administrations offers insight. The research was undertaken with two main objectives: (1) to advance a modified bridge theory of foreign policy that takes into account international and domestic political effects, and (2) to offer an original and comprehensive study of the 1972 China initiative, how it was affected by domestic politics, how it was sold to the American public, and its effect on and connection to other policies.

The Nixon case---the centerpiece of the dissertation---shows (1) that the interests of at least one dominant power can affect the system and that the system can also affect those interests; (2) that cooperation may result from an increase in the number of players (or at least an increasing of importance of one of the players, i.e. China); and (3) that domestic politics may figure significantly into a decision to reverse earlier policies.

This dissertation offers an integrated approach connecting shifts in the international environment, the creation and sustaining of long-term grand strategy, problems of generating and sustaining domestic support, and the manipulation of ideology and conflict.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 14:15
by RajeshA
The throat-cut capitalism in China is an affront to the vision of Mao (PBUH)! China needs another Maoist Revolution to purge all the corrupt capitalists and leaders in China. The present Communist Party of China has disgraced itself by siding with corrupt capitalist practices. It has been infiltrated by the agents of America.

China needs a new Maoist Revolution!

"Máo Zhǔxí Wànsuì" 毛主席万岁
"May Chairman Mao live for ten thousand years!" :mrgreen:

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 10:01
by ManuT
The movie made in 1946: Dr Kotnis ki amar kahani (The eternal story of Dr Kotnis) (2 hours)
During Japanese invasion in 1938 went to China in with group of other Indian doctors as a show of solidarity to the Chinese. Died in mission of plague in in China.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotnis (the wiki link has been posted earlier)

Unfortunately no English subtitles.


A footnote now.

Re: People's Republic of China, Dec. 27 2011

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 02:22
by svinayak
http://www.hereisbeijing.com/east-vs-we ... e-culture/
East Vs West – A guide to Chinese Culture
Perception of Beauty


Only white is beautiful
In China light skin is beautiful and brown skin is avoided like the plague. Chinese women use skin whitening beauty products and avoid the sun while western women use tanning products and embrace the sun. Travelling around China you will often see Chinese women out and about with an umbrella to protect their delicate white skin from the ravages of the sun.

In ancient times white skin was a sign of wealth and status and brown skin was a sign of poverty and labelled you as a low class labourer or farm hand. Hundreds of years later this belief still dominates perceptions of beauty.

Queuing


Queuing is for suckers
Queuing is for the weak and pushing and shoving are the norm. This sounds very harsh but you will see the reality of it when you go to banks, train stations, shop counters and most other places where people would normally queue in the west. Chinese are slowly improving and you can see nice orderly queues at many bus stops but the general rule in many places is that if you want service, you will have to join the pack and fight for it.

Noise and restaurants


The louder the better
Chinese people love to talk loudly and constantly while they eat and meals in a Chinese restaurant are very noisy and boisterous affairs. Restaurants should be noisy and the noisier it is, the better it is. If you like don’t mind the noise, share meals with the Chinese you meat during your travels and you’ll have a great time. If you prefer a quiet peaceful romantic candlelit dinner while you travel in China, order room service.