Beijing Newspeak

Anyone in China thinking of downing a few amphetamine cocktails and tearing around the animal market in Kashgar, armed with a pair of scissors and the intention to shear 51 sheep in eight hours in order to enter the Guinness Book of World Records (current record is 50 held by Janos of Hungary), is advised to read the small print on the record application form.

Last weekend, Xinhua released what was one of its better stories about the Chinese media getting all worked up at an attempt by a group of firecracker factories in Liuyang, Hunan, to set a Guinness world record for the longest string of firecrackers - an incredible 20 kilometers - in an unabashed publicity campaign involving local government money.

Chinese media have blasted an attempt by a Chinese city in Hunan province to set a world record for the longest string of firecrackers, labeling it “ridiculous” and a waste of money.

A 20-km string of firecrackers, stretching from Dayao Town to the downtown area of Liuyang City, home to China’s largest firecracker production base, went up in smoke on Friday afternoon, exploding for 68 minutes and littering the ground with red debris, as organizers sought to gain publicity for the city and its local fireworks industry.

The event, organized by several firecracker plants and partly sponsored by the local government, cost more than 800,000 yuan (about 107,000 U.S. dollars), including 580,000 yuan for the firecrackers themselves and the remainder to stage the event and ensure the fire service was on standby.

“The production of firecrackers is one of the city’s main industries. We hope the success of making the longest firecracker will increase the confidence of the producers and make our city well-known across the country,” said Xu Qiangguo, head of the Liuyang Firecrackers Bureau.

The Changsha Evening News had billed the event as a world record bid, saying the organisers had applied for officials from the Guinness Book of Records to be present to adjudicate. Xinhua clarifies the situation:

But the event, billed by local media as a Guinness World Record attempt, was not attended by an official Guinness World Records representative after it ignored a request from the organizers to attend.

Instead, a representative from the unofficial Shanghai Great World Guinness Book of Records turned up to present them with a certificate bestowing upon the city the honor of having only “the country’s longest string of firecrackers”.

“I can only ensure you that it’s the longest firecracker in China and I dare not say it’s the world’s longest,” said the Shanghai office’s representative Wang Yizhuo.

The “Shanghai Great World Guinness Book of Records” has been confusing the media and the public for years. As the Xinhua article explains, Guinness’ official representative in China is Liaoning Education Press which has been ”the real Guinness Book of Records representative in China since Shanghai Great World Guinness and the Guinness Book of Records split in 1996″. When the two organisations parted, the Shanghai office changed the “Guinness” part of its name from ji (1st tone) ni (2nd tone) si (1st tone) to ji (2nd tone) ni (2nd) si (1st) - ie a different first character with a slightly different pronunication. Cunning.

From then on, the state media, known fondly for its frequent displays of gullibility, and of course patriotism, were happily oblivious to the newly created discrepancy, coming up with stories like this:

Tianchi, a lake on the top of Mount Changbai in northeast China’s Jilin Province, has been recognized as the highest volcanic lake in the world.

A nearby waterfall, which plunges 68 meters over a cliff, is also regarded as the largest waterfall originating from crater lakes.

The Shanghai Office of the Guinness Book of World Records has granted certificates to these two scenic spots in Mount Changbai recently…

…Experts believe that now Mount Changbai has found an entry in the Guinness Book of Records, it will become better known throughout the world and help boost the local tourism industry.

Chinese media refer to Leshan resident Du Pinhua as the world’s oldest person, citing the Guinness Book of Records. That fount of indisputable fact Wikipedia has more:

Du Pinhua of China (born April 22, 1886?) is a claimant to the world’s oldest person title and lives in Leshan. According to the Shanghai branch of Guinness World Records (and in apparent defiance of Guinness’ London headquarters), Du Pinhua was proclaimed the world’s oldest person in 2002. The claim disappeared for almost four years before resurfacing in April 2006, when it was claimed that Du celebrated her 120th birthday. Again, her age has not been internationally recognized.

It seems the last media source to be duped was the Shanghai Daily back in May of this year, which ran the headline, “Kids in Shanghai Grab Guinness Record for Pinwheels”. Unsurprisingly, the record was approved by Shanghai Great World Guinness. Maybe the newspaper let it go because it was done for charity.

Back in 2003, the Shanghai Guinness office was actually taken to court by a disgruntled bungee jumper, according to this report from eastday.com.

With dreams of seeing his name in the Guinness Book of World Records, a middle-aged businessman from Beijing bungee jumped from a helicopter in Handan, Hebei Province, last August after paying a registration fee to a Shanghai-based company he thought was affiliated with the Guinness publishers.

The jump was a success, but his dream remains unrealized, so Zhang Di is taking the local firm, Shanghai Great World Guinness Office, to court.

Zhang said he has discovered the company isn’t affiliated with the Guinness Book and he wants it to pay him compensation of 57,800 yuan (US$7,000) for expenses and mental anguish.

Zhang paid 1,800 yuan (US$217) to register his leap from a helicopter 80 meters above the ground, claiming it was the first bungee jump from a moving aircraft in history.

However, Zhang discovered his death-defying act might not be recognized as a world record when a Beijing newspaper reported last September that “Shanghai Guinness is not an authorized agent of the Guinness Book of World Records and has been misleading the public.”

“I knew of Shanghai Guinness through the media and contacted the office last May. Its officials confirmed to me that the office is the authorized agent of the Guinness Book,” said Zhang….

…”I knew of Shanghai Guinness through the media and contacted the office last May. Its officials confirmed to me that the office is the authorized agent of the Guinness Book,” said Zhang.

I don’t know the outcome of the trial but it seems Shanghai Great World Guinness is now adopting a more honest approach to record breaking, flourishing “China’s longest firecracker” certificates instead of ones that encompass the globe. However, organisers of these ridiculous events are happy to dish out flyers emblazoned with “Guinness Book of World Records” and the local media lap it up.

Shanghai Great World Guinness has done an excellent PR job. People turn to them without even knowing about the official branch in Liaoning. Shanghai charges an application fee, Liaoning Education Press does not. And Shanghai Great World Guinness enjoys illustrious connections. It comes under the authority of the Shanghai Communist Youth League.

Newspapers around China criticized the firecracker stunt in Liuyang saying it was a waste of money, particularly as it was partly funded by the local government. Add to that, it wasn’t even an official world record. But in this case, the organizers and local government couldn’t care less - after the event they phoned Xinhua to say their factories had received 30 million yuan in orders as a direct result of their big bang.

No effort was spared to ensure Xinhua’s journalistic performance scaled similar heights to China’s first lunar orbiter Chang’e-1 yesterday. At 11:20, the headline “THIS IS A TEST” popped up on the wire. Unfortunately someone missed a bit so ten minutes later, “FLASH: THIS IS A TEST” appeared. It was repeated four more times for good measure as it became clear editors had a lot less faith in the agency’s technology than China’s space bods had in theirs. Or maybe it was out of superstition - the special lunar news centre had been set up on the dreaded floor four.

At 14:52, Xinhua began its bombardment with a “China counting down …” story that was updated throughout the afternoon, punctuated by a few ”BACKGROUNDERS” and, oh there it goes again, “FLASH: THIS IS A TEST”. And again. And one more for luck. “THIS IS A TEST”.

Then, at 18:05, the moment arrived. A call from a Xinhua journalist at the landing site in Sichuan confirmed blast off. The mouse was clicked. The headline was filed. “FLASH: CHINA’S LUNAR PROBE CHANG’E-1 BLASTS OFF.” Cheers and applause on floor four. Successful launch of story onto international wire, foreign press defeated. And it was a full 15 minutes before a glaring grammatical mistake was made in the subsequent updates.

Critics of China’s space program argue the money could be better spent elsewhere. To illustrate their point, they hold up images like the one of a man from the Yi ethnic minority in rural Sichuan ploughing his field using medieval technology, while a Long March carrier rocket looms in the background. The Chinese government is aware this feeling exists which explains the headlines released by Xinhua in the minutes after the rocket launch:

“China’s lunar project only costs one billion yuan: chief”. “Senior lunar scientist says nation should have adventurous spirit”. And then at 19:20, to reaffirm the explicitly political nature of the event, the full text of Hu Jintao’s report to the 17th Party Congress was released.

However, it seems the government has little to worry about as, for the time being at least, the majority appear to be behind the lunar program.

On tianya.cn’s public forum one person wrote a list of 50 criticisms of Chang’e-1. Here are some of them:

1. What is great about Chang E No 1? Look, even India’s preparing to go to the moon, China’s skill level is simply not good enough.

2. Ordinary people can’t afford a house, see a doctor or read books, but the government wastes money building Chang’e.

3. The authoritarian Chang’e lifts off, the impoverished ordinary people’s tax is squandered.　　　　　　　　　　　
　　　　　　　
4. Taxpayers’ money is spent by the government on this face-saving project, only a dictator government could do this kind of thing.

These comments prompted a barrage of criticism from the overwhelming majority of forum users who praised the project. “You’re not mentally balanced,” one said. “Is there any country in the world that hasn’t got societal problems?” one more asked. Another said, “It’s typical of people like you to oppose anything that the Chinese Communist Party does.”

The views on the news.qq.com forum were more balanced with a roughly 50-50 spilt between those in favour of the project and those against.

One person implied that China’s pensioners were not getting as much money as they should due to the cost of Chang’e. “Is going to the moon really a must for every country? I don’t know, but anyway I’m not interested and what’s more I won’t feel proud (America went to the moon 40 years ago). If we must go to the moon then go, but first we must give the money to the ordinary people. This year the media have really hyped this event up and the result is pensioners from our business every month are only getting an extra 70 yuan. Does our country have no money?”

Another person on qq said, “This really is a waste of money and it doesn’t matter how many times you say it but this still is at base level and it’s only repeating what’s been done before. China’s cars, televisions, refridgerators, mobile phones and other kinds of goods all have to rely on assembly from different sources. When China can make goods that are as popular globally as Japan’s … then we should think about building a space program.”

One Xinhua journalist I spoke to supported the program, saying it was “good for China”. But when he realised that the future aim of the project was to put a man on the moon by 2020 he changed his tune. “Total waste of money. We can use machinery to explore the moon, we don’t need a man up there.”

Another journalist said she thought it was a positive thing but she wanted the government to give her specific reasons why the project will benefit China. This, I feel, is an important point. The nature of the Chinese media - and the Publicity Department of course - means the reporting of this issue has a heavily patriotic and didactic tone, with inadequate emphasis placed on the concrete, scientific benefits of the space program. They need less of this (via Xinhua):

A SENIOR scientist said the ongoing lunar probe program reflected the great adventurous spirit of humanity, and that the Chinese nation should have such a spirit.

China’s space exploration, like that of other countries, belongs to humanity, and such exploration is an obligation and responsibility China should take, according to Luan Enjie, chief commander of China’s lunar orbiter project.

And more of this (via Xinhua):

The possibility of mining the moon for its helium-3 is a major task of the lunar probe. This non-polluting and potent element with almost no radioactive by-products is considered by many scientists to be the perfect fusion energy source to replace oil and gas once the depth of the moon’s soil and the quantity and distribution of helium-3 are measured.

“We will explore the new energy prospects on the moon for mankind. After all, the Earth’s resources are not inexhaustible,” said Ouyang Ziyuan, chief scientist of the lunar program, adding there is about 15 tons of helium-3 on the Earth, while the volume of helium-3 on the Moon is estimated at one to five million tons.

“When obtaining nuclear power from helium-3 becomes a reality, the resource on the moon can be used to generate electricity for more than 10,000 years for the whole world,” Ouyang said.

As things stand, it is very difficult to argue the money should be spent elsewhere. The cost of launching the lunar orbiter is 1.4 billion yuan, which (I like this stat) is equivalent to the money spent on building two subway stations in Beijing. Compare that with the seven billion yuan of Chinese government funds misappropriated in 2006. And then there is the fact that Japan and India are forging ahead with their own space programs, the argument that the money could always appear to be better spent elsewhere in any country etc .. So when the costs of China’s space program start rising, maybe the government should, through the media, point out the practicalities to the people rather than just playing the pride card.

Related link: There is a nice video on Shanghaiist here featuring enthusiastic whoops from the pro-space camp.

Well thank Hu that’s all over with for another five years. I’m certainly not going to complain about the congress week though - the English-language polishing brigade of Dui Wai Bu, complete with new recruit, has been kicking back and basking in the glow of oppressive strip lighting for the last few days. In what was the quietest week of my Xinhua career/cameo, aptly coinciding with what is considered by the Party as the most important news event of the half-decade, I even had time to visit Nanjing and marvel at the way red neon Chinese characters shot down high-rise buildings at night to say, ”Wishing the Big 17th every success.”

Xinhua’s Party congress news was delivered to the world by journalists cooped up in the warren of tunnels built in the 1960s under the district of Qianmen (just south of the Great Hall of the People) which these days is open to tourists and billed as the Underground City. I can’t guarantee the truth of that statement but seeing as the journalists weren’t allowed to send text messages or make phone calls mentioning the congress, I would have thought being buried underground would have been the logical place to set up HQ.

The nature of Xinhua’s (seemingly) final congress story was fitting, sporting an emphatic last line:

BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — Hu Jintao, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, state president and chairman of the Central Military Commission, had a meeting with military delegates of the just-ended 17th Party Congress on Monday evening.

Guo Boxiong, Cao Gangchuan and Xu Caihou were present at the meeting, at Beijing’s Jingxi Hotel, along with other former and newly-elected senior military officials Yang Baibing, Zhang Wannian, Chi Haotian, Zhao Nanqi, Liang Guanglie, Chen Bingde, Li Jinai, Liao Xilong, Chang Wanquan, Qiao Qingchen, Jing Zhiyuan, WuShengli and Xu Qiliang.

Hu and the others were greeted with warm applause and they shook hands and had pictures taken with the Army delegates.

The military delegates represent the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP).

According to law, the Chinese armed forces are definitely under the leadership of the CPC.

Dui Wai Bu journalists normally find themselves dancing in cages when writing stories in English but at least there is room for manoeuvre. However, in the last few months they have been confined to a collective strait jacket, required to stick to merely translating the Chinese-language stories that come from the domestic news department. The pre-congress restrictions unfortunately collided with the mass relocation to the newly renovated Xinhua tower which boasts a newsroom to rival any media organisation. This kind of news environment makes the absence of news all the more apparent.

Hopefully, we will start to see some decent stories again. It looks as if there will be a polishing team of five in place by the end of the month (as opposed to two throughout the summer) which means more time for on-the-job training. While, this is undoubtedly appreciated by the vast majority of Dui Wai Bu editors, it does mean they will be bombarded with, at times, unrealistic demands to improve stories.

A comparative glut of polishers should result in more opportunites to try and balance the stories. Although, I think I might find it difficult to rekindle my enthusiasm when stories like this one are released:

BEIJING, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) — Oscar Arias Sanchez, president of Costa Rica arrived here on Monday morning, kicking off an one-week state visit to China at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao.

During Arias’s stay in Beijing, Hu will hold talks with him. Chinese top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao will meet him respectively.

Besides the capital Beijing, Arias will also visit northwestern city of Xi’an and China’s commercial hub Shanghai.

This is the first time for Arias to visit China since he took office in 2006. He had visited China in 1968 and 2004 respectively.

China and Costa Rica posted 1.56 billion U.S. dollars of bilateral trade in the first seven months of this year, up 61.3 percent year-on-year. The Chinese side predicted that trade for the whole of 2007 will reach 3 billion U.S. dollars, up from 2.16 billion U.S. dollars reported last year.

Beautifully-timed, the first post-congress visit from a head of state is Oscar Arias, president of Costa Rica. The blue, white and red flag waved at the crowds on Tiananmen yesterday, four months after the Central American country switched its allegiance from Taiwan to China. I have given up asking why this basic fact is deliberately avoided in this kind of story.

I don’t envy the foreign media’s task of bringing the Party congress to the masses in their prospective homelands. One good friend of mine back in the UK, who does have a keen interest in news about China, sent me a text yesterday which said, ”There’s a full-page spread in the Guardian today on the 17th for the second day running. I made the mistake of reading it yesterday - I’m not going to be so foolish again! Whenever the grauniad journo used the word harmonious I felt the need to sub in quotation marks.” Its no slight on Guardian correspondent Jonathan Watts, it’s just that Hu Jintao’s speech was less spicy than a chicken korma.

Reuters found themselves having to churn out several stories each focusing on a few pars of Hu’s address, introduced by headlines that wouldn’t surprise a jungle dweller. “China’s Hu says Communist Party must stay in charge”, “China vows to rebalance economy, nurse environment”, “China must host good Games: president”. Newspapers picked their angles which led to non-conformity on Google news. The New York Times headline read, “China’s leader closes door to reform” while an AFP story was accompanied by the headline, “Hu flags political reform for China”. In another story, AFP tried to inject energy into Hu’s phraseology with “China to go eco-friendly: Hu”. The Times went easy on their readers with an all-you-need-to-know-about-the-congress article in a question and answer format which actually worked very well. The Telegraph’s Richard Spencer has the luxury (though it seems he has to do twice as much work as a result) of being able to write the news story and then conveying his feelings through his blog, describing the congress as a “festival of dull … dull, that is, except for the surroundings, which are spectacular in a makes-you-sit-up-and-stare sort of way”.

By Tuesday, Reuters were alert to anything that veered from the norm. From the press conference in which the media started to get to know - in the kind of way you get to know celebrities at Madame Tussauds - the expected future leaders of China, Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, Reuters had, “‘Consumption is playing a bigger role in driving the economy than investment. Investment growth continues to fall to what we would expect. These are good changes,’ said Xi, wearing a pair of trousers which appeared a bit too short for him.” It seems as if the Shanghai Party boss has one more character trait than Hu Jintao already - expect the trouser fact to be included in all media profiles of Xi when/if  he becomes president.

Going back to that Times article, Jane Macartney’s answer to the question, “Do ordinary Chinese care about the congress?” seemed spot on.

Put simply, no, not really. Most Chinese feel that politics has little to do with their lives. They are relatively happy with the current unspoken deal between party and people. That is, the party will leave the people alone to get on with the business of making money and living a more comfortable life if the people leave the party to govern.

So most people think there’s little point in meddling with politics and feel it all happens very much in secret and what’s the point of bothering about it.

This post on Danwei addressed the same issue and included this quote from Chinese blogger Zhai Hua:

In sum, rather than investigating how concerned the people are about the 17th Party Congress, it’s probably more valuable to look into whether the 17th Party Congress is concerned with the public.

Again, probably true but I thought I would spend a couple of hours strolling around Qianmen’s remaining hutongs yesterday afternoon anyway, asking the “laobaixing” what they thought about the congress (with the help of a friend whose language ability is a couple of light years ahead of mine).

It had been a while since I had conducted a good old-fashioned vox pop. My last one was asking desperate-looking sorts in betting shops in Chiswick (SW London) what they thought about the mind-numbing, wallet content-sapping dross that is virtual horseracing. They all claimed it was a fix. But they still gambled on it anyway.

The police presence around parts of Beijing this week has been extraordinary. Over in Xuanwumen (Xinhua land), officers have been sitting playing cards in a street that has been cordoned off from the public. The registration plates of their vehicles herald from provinces all over China - it looks like any petitioners from Shandong that decide to make an appearance will have a free ride back home. At Qianmen, the size of the blue-uniformed force is comical and apart from the officers searching people exiting the subway on the south side of Tiananmen, they have absolutely nothing to do. Their sheer numbers do succeed, however, in deterring sly foreigners from stealing one of the hundreds of yellow and red posters welcoming the congress which would make cracking souvenirs. I nearly pilfered an “Eight Honours, Eight Disgraces” poster from Xinhua last year but got cold feet at the last minute.

First up was a souvenir seller with cheeky dimples and a winning initial sales pitch. “Hey, Mr Handsome, you like Mahjong?” After we steered the conversation to the “shi qi da” (the big 17th), she replied, “It doesn’t matter to people like me, I am not important enough. All I care about is making money, enough so I have food and clothes. Your mother like scarf?” (Last bit in English).

Next up was a young DVD vendor, who ended up costing me 160 yuan for Zhang Yimou’s greatest hits. He said the congress didn’t really affect his life and he didn’t have time to watch it on television. One of the only things he had in his DVD store was a television. Then, the 60ish popcorn seller who was reading the congress pages of a Beijing newspaper. He said he was interested in the congress but it would take a long time for the common people to feel the benefit of government policies. “Look at me,” he said, as clarification.

We took a right into an area of hutongs east of Qianmen which are slated for demolition, stopping by a group of men squatting by a pile of those seed things (can’t remember the name) that are used to stuff pillows. Are you discussing the shi qi da? “Too busy drinking,” one man with a bottle of baijiu said. And after a few niceties, he said to my friend, “I like you, I want to fuck you.”

We found our final interviewees at a newspaper stand - a man and a woman in their forties. The man didn’t want to talk but the woman didn’t mind. “It’s great that the government is starting to care about the common people,” she said, beaming.

So there you go. In this case, a vox pop around Qianmen really was of limited use. But it was good fun anyway. It also served as a useful reminder that I should study a lot more Chinese and that every “laobaixing” you meet can’t be expected to pour out their hearts to a couple of foreigners after a minute’s conversation. When I was researching a story about the redevelopment of Qianmen several months ago, a few people we interviewed said to my Chinese translator, “Why are you helping a foreigner to find out the bad things about China?” Others, on the other hand, were very forthcoming.

Shuffling around Qianmen is also far less dramatic than clicking a mouse. Last night, Bullog.cn had a notice saying, “Due to this very sensitive period, we can’t let you talk about politics anymore, very sorry.” One response was:

The People’s Congress is the whole country’s representatives meeting time, during this time all the people have to shut their fucking mouths. Look, what can you do when you have been castrated? If you have been castrated, how can you fuck? All you can do is be fucked.

Now that sells newspapers.

Excellent link: http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/2007/10/16/china-tough-blogging-the-communist-congress/

As the Party congress opens to chants of “unswervingly”, Xinhua has released a story about how the foreign media will be pummelled with all the news and views from the congress they could have only dreamed about five years ago.

BEIJING, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) — Journalists who cover the coming 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) will enjoy broader coverage scope and more considerate service during the five-yearly meeting, said congress spokesman Li Dongsheng Sunday afternoon.

Discussions of 34 delegations on the political report to be delivered by Hu Jintao on behalf of the 16th CPC Central Committee on Monday will be open to more than 1,900 domestic and overseas journalists at designated period of time, Li said at a press conference.

Li said journalists are welcomed to listen to the discussions, which used to be inaccessible to media, and will be fed with question and answer sessions, adding the move is part of the country’s efforts to offer overseas media broader information access during the Olympics.

Great news (tempered by the fact the information will be mere morsels requiring serious hamming up) for foreign journalists, bad news for Xinhua. Over the last few years, the government’s various ministries have set up regular press conferences open to the foreign media and many kindly provide the minutes of the briefings on their websites. Unfortunately, this goes a long way in negating the need for Xinhua’s English service. It seems that Xinhua copy will be used even less by the foreign media at this year’s five-yearly congress so it’s not looking good for 2012. But it doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom. Only a simple reform is needed to ensure Xinhua’s output does not just simply disappear into the ether.

Mr President, I would like to propose a full-time tabloid news department. Journalists will focus on the inane, comical and downright filthy goings-on from around the country. I guarantee the number of Xinhua stories picked up by international news websites will increase tenfold. The Reuters “Oddly Enough” section is a shoe-in. And please do not concern yourself with credibility issues - it can’t get much worse. Reporters unite to spread toilet humour!

I refer you to Xinhua’s recent scoop about Beijing car drivers being pissed off (I wanted to use this pun instead of “flushed with embarrassment” in the original headline but it didn’t fit Xinhua’s style) at the letters “WC” appearing on around 800 newly-issued licence plates. Here it is in its full glory:

SOME Beijing motorists are kicking up a fuss over license plate numbers that contain the letter combination “WC,” saying it gives them unpleasant images of the toilet, according to the Beijing Morning Post.

Eight hundred drivers applying for new license plates outside the capital’s fifth ring road will find themselves with “WC” on their cars.

The term became one of the best-known English expressions in China when it was used to identify public toilets.

“I will not make myself a laughing stock among my friends by adding such a weird abbreviation to my new car,” said a car owner surnamed Zhang.

However, a Beijing policeman in charge of issuing license plates in the city would not be moved. “We will not change our policy,” he said.

It is not the first time sensitive car drivers in China have raised their objections to license plate numbers.

In Xinyang City, central China’s Henan Province, “SB” has been removed from possible license plate combinations because it coincides with an abbreviation used on Internet forums for a strong term of abuse in Mandarin.

Traffic authorities in the south China city of Haikou removed the number four from the city’s number plates in August as it is considered unlucky by Chinese - it sounds like “death” when pronounced in Mandarin.

A simple formula. Take the story straight from the local Beijing newspapers - which probably came from one grumpy bloke phoning up the newspaper office in true local news journalism style -, log onto an Internet forum to get an extra quote and whack in a couple of background pars. Resist the urge to point out that seeing the word “POO” at the end of registration plates in Britain is perfectly normal. Reuters reproduces it and the story ends up being dispersed around the world, including Azerbaijan.

Mr President, if I could just remind you of some of Xinhua’s previous triumphs over the last year and a half. The one about China Southern Airlines trying to save fuel by encouraging people not to use the toilet mid-flight (if anyone has actually seen this put in practice, please let me know). The one about Olympic souvenirs being made out of panda poo. And anything to do with the world’s tallest man Bao Xishun. These stories will stay in the minds of newspaper readers all around the world and are set to define China in the early 21st Century.

Last month, Angela Merkel became the first German chancellor to hold an official meeting with the Dalai Lama. The Chinese government’s response was standard enough. The Dalai Lama is not simply a religious figure, he is a longtime political exile engaged in separatist activities. China said the meeting could damage trade ties.

Then came the announcement that President Bush would become the first sitting US president to appear with the Dalai Lama at a public event when the Tibetan leader is awarded the Congressional Gold Medal on October 17. News filtered through that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will also meet the Dalai Lama at the end of the month and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown is expected to meet him next year when the DL embarks on a UK tour. It is not as if China is in a position to alter its trade relations with Germany, the US, Canada and Britain. There is nothing it can do about the torrent of state-level meetings involving its age-old foe except make loud noises. The time, days before the CPC congress, was therefore ripe for China’s propaganda chiefs to make the situation a whole lot worse for the motherland.

Beginning last Friday, the powers that be released four commentaries - one every two days leaving us just enough time for digestion before another barrage is rammed down our throats - with more bite than one of those rabid dogs we hear about in Beijing, shortly before the government launches a crackdown on pet pooches. They can be read here, here, here and here. Anyone who reads all four gets a lollipop.

Criticism of the Dalai Lama does not solely emanate from the Party bods of course. Victor and Victoria Trimondi’s book “The Shadow of the Dalai Lama” proves that and I found the snippets that I have read fascinating. But no one can match the Chinese propaganda machine in its ability to rub people up the wrong way with tirades that often verge on childish. The first two articles I have linked to above weren’t that bad but things fly rapidly downhill with the article “Carrying forward Buddhism or fueling evil cults”, which was picked up, and picked apart, by Reuters. Here is a taster (love the aha):

Why would the 14th Dalai Lama openly violate the teachings of Sakyamuni that urge his followers to get rid of demons and uphold truth and laws to favor Aum Shinrikyo? Why would he flout the tenets of Buddhism urging the masses not to do evils but to do good deeds? The 14th Dalai Lama had confessed in a letter to the cult, appreciating the Aum Shinrikyo Sect for its “generous donation to our Buddhist collective in exile”. Aha, it turned out to be that the “leader” even bartered away the sacred tenet of Buddhism as a cheap bargaining chip in money deals.

It ended with a liberal helping of undignified exclamation marks, that were actually removed by the China Daily (as was the “aha”), one can only assume, out of embarrassment:

As one Chinese saying goes: Birds of a feather flock together. The real reasons for the collusion of the 14th Dalai Lama and Li Hongzhi are their shared situation. They are both in exile after their illegal acts to subvert the Chinese government and the Chinese people ended in constant failures under the august Chinese Constitution and laws; Shared nature–They are both not resigned to failures and attempt to hoodwink and manipulate their few domestic followers to carry on making turbulence and to hold back the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation; Shared intention–They are both hostile to their motherland and regard the 1.3 million Chinese as enemies, dreaming a pipe dream of returning to China, with the support of their masters, to materialize their evil objective of splitting China. Imagine the 14th Dalai Lama, the self-proclaimed “religious leader”, even condescended to associate with Li Hongzhi who has been labeled by the United International World Buddhism Association Headquarters as a preacher of evil cult and a swindler! This obviously reflects that the 14th Dalai Lama has cornered himself into a dead end!

As an English-language polisher, what do you do when you receive something like that, translated word-for-word from the Chinese? Well, nothing of course, apart from ensuring it is just about grammatically correct.

Further credibility is lost when this kind of “signed article” is written by someone we have never heard of (he might be more well known in the Chinese-language press of course). The author in question is “Shi Shan” but we are given nothing about his background, leaving Reuters with little option but to say, in rightly sceptical fashion, the article was written by “somebody calling themselves Shi Shan”. Two days later, we learn that Shi Shan is “a research fellow in Tibetan Buddhism who used to work in Tibet for a long time” and actually accompanied the DL and the 10th Panchen Lama to Beijing:

In 1954, I accompanied the 14th Dalai Lama and the 10th Panchen Lama to Beijing. Till now, the zealous and respectful manner that the Dalai Lama demonstrated during that visit is still vivid in my mind. In the eulogy he presented to Chairman Mao Zedong in both Tibetan and Chinese, he extolled Chairman Mao as the “red sun”, which “glorifies the whole nation, drives away invaders, and brings peace and blessing to people of all ethnic groups”. However, when he fled abroad, he went back on his words and broke the precept of no lying by wantonly attacking and defaming his home country and calling on the so-called free world to unite to block the development of his own people and motherland.

I have found it fascinating to follow the relationship between the DL and the Chinese government through previous state media reports. In February, 1951, things appear hunky dory, with the headline: “Tibetans initiate peaceful liberation movement”. Four months later in June, the less catchy: “Congratulations sent to Dalai Lama by government of TAR on signing of measures for peaceful liberation of Tibet”. In November, the Dalai Lama is presenting gifts to PLA soldiers.

Leap forward to 1954 and the DL has reached celebrity status. Dalai Lama does this, Dalai Lama does that, Dalai Lama goes here, Dalai Lama greets someone else. In 1957, “The Dalai Lama worships Buddha in Lhasa”, something he does quite regularly I would imagine. In 1958, he is even “warning American imperialists they would be courting certain doom if they fail to recognise the strength of the Chinese people”. But then we get to March 28, 1959, when the “Order of the State Council of the Chinese people’s republic” arrives (apologies for the offense to the eyes but this was before the era of capitalization and correct punctuation):

most of the kaloons of the tibet local government and the upper strata reactionary clique colluded with imperialism,assembled rebellious bandits, carry out rebellion, ravaged the people’s congress, and premier chou en-lai.the message was addressed to wladislaw gomulka, first secretary of the central committee of the polish united workers party; aleksander zawadzki president of the council people, put the dalai lama under duress, tore up the seventeen article agreement on measures for the peaceful liberation of tibet and, on the night of march nineteenth, directed the tibetan local army and rebellious elements to launch a general offensive against the people’s liberation army garrison in lhasa.such acts which betray the motherland and disrupt unification are not allowed by law. in order to safeguard the unification of the country and national unity, in addition to enjoining the tibet military area command of the chinese people’s liberation army to put down the rebellion thoroughly, the decision is that from this day the tibet local government is dissolved and the preparatory committee for the tibet autonomous region shall exercise the functions and powers of the tibet local government. during the time when the dalai lama dantzen-jaltso, chairman of the preparatory committee for the tibet autonomous region, is under duress by the rebels, panchen erdeni chuji-geltseng, vice-chairman of the preparatory committee will act as the chairman.

Credit to Xinhua’s masters, they published (in English) the full text of the Dalai Lama’s statement made on April 20 after he fled to India, which included the line:

the dalai lama would like to state categorically that he left lhasa and tibet and came to india of his own free will and not under duress.

China’s reaction came on the same day:

the so-called “statement of the dalai lama,” issued through an indian diplomatic official in tezpur on april eighteenth, is a crude document, lame in reasoning, full of lies and loop-holes.

(Apologies in advance for the last-line cliche but I’ve got to rush to work). The rest, as they say, is history.

I fear this post will be illogical and completely lacking in a central theme as befits a polisher who is not so much losing his marbles as seeing them crushed into powder under the weight of pre-Congress propaganda and who is becoming bored, in a petulant kind of way, with harmonizing the content of his blog. Spare a thought, though, for those souls who are actually required to write articles under the headline of “Chinese people proud of nation’s development” rather than just tossing a few commas into the mix. What, you want the link for that one? Gluttons.

Of course, it could be a lot worse. Luckily, I have had nothing to do with the Special Olympics coverage. One reporter saw a great opportunity to link a volleyball game featuring the German Unified Volleyball Team (I had no idea we still have to make that kind of clarification) to the buzzword of the upcoming Party Congress through the headline, “German team shows harmony, though loses match”.

It seems the Zimbabwean team’s efforts are receiving a decent dollop of coverage on the Xinhua wire, some of which has been snapped up by Mugabe’s pet publication The Herald to complement the stories filed by its own correspondent.  Xinhua’s stories probably won’t go too far to softening the blow of China’s move away from Mugabe’s regime but The Herald is unrivalled in its snide remarks anyway:

Clothes for the Special Olympic Zimbabwe team were tailor-made for the grand official opening ceremony and it was a refreshing sight from some nations which wore tracksuits.

Material for the attire was sourced through the Harare Mayor’s Christmas Cheer Fund where SOZ where one of the charities which benefited to the tune of $20 million.

The money was then used to purchase cloth and a top-up was made for the tailors to come up with the attire. Sentiment among some people here had been that Zimbabwe would not be able to send a team due to the negative publicity the country has been subjected to by some international media organisations.

But to their surprise the nation has managed to field a decent number of athletes for golf, bocce, swimming and track and field.

China hosting the Special Olympics is of course a very good thing but improving awareness of people with intellectual disabilities within the country is largely down to the media. Some of the stories I have seen that have been translated into English have been so naive they don’t really help anybody. For example (an unfortunate use of quotation marks around the word “stars” it seems):

Five intellectually disabled players from the British delegation attending the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games had their birthday party Thursday at Wugong Hotel in Shanghai.

“I am so excited now. I just want to say ‘thank you’,” 20-year-old tennis player Thomas William Styles said, eating a birthday cake.

“It’s my birthday today, and it will be a wonderful memory in my whole life,” Styles said. “I want to call my parents now and share with them my pleasure.”

“Happy birthday to you.” The delegation members sang and danced.

The five “stars” lit candles, cut the birthday cake, received gifts and expressed their gratefulness to others.

Another event in which I will not be involved in the dissemination process is the Party Congress. This leaves me with plenty of time to keep up with the latest analysis on China Media Project, which is providing superb insight. Personally I can’t get enough of the intricasies of Party speak - something that can be lost in translation in Xinhua’s English versions - and it’s all here, courtesy of the Journalism and Media Studies Centre in Hong Kong. Of course, we can keep up with the breaking news through the website of the 17th National Congress Press Center, on which the government clearly disproves theories that it doesn’t do all it can to assist the foreign media with the following advice for correspondents:

In Beijing, it becomes colder in October. For the large temperature differences between day and night in this season, we would like to remind you of taking a coat with you when working outside so as to avoid catching cold.

Nice. On a related note, I expect the homepage of  the Communist Party news website will be updated shortly, seeing as it still has a picture of Huang Ju among its bigwigs.

One story that did stir a modicum of interest in me in recent days was this piece about the number of new Communist Party members in the last five years. According to the CPC’s Organization Department, the Party took 13.16 million new members under its wing and the total now stands at 73.36 million. However, out of 19.6 million applicants only 134,000 came from the “new social stratum” - 0.68 percent. And out of them, only 64,000 “are likely to join the Party soon”. The idea of a “new social stratum” was put forward officially by Jiang Zemin in 2001 to add to the five strata of farmer, worker, intellectual, cadre and soldier. It consists of “private entrepreneurs, technicians, managerial-level staff in private or foreign-funded companies, the self-employed and employees in intermediate organizations”, according to Xinhua. Xinhua journalists are classed as intellectuals but one joked that I was from the “new social stratum” because I earned lots of money. Great dig.

It has long been accepted that many people join the Party out of convenience - to rise up the ranks more smoothly - or to please their Party-member families. Clearly members of the so-called new social stratum, a section of society that will continue to balloon over the next few years and which contains some of the country’s richest people, do not feel Party membership is of particular benefit. Nor is the CPC rushing to snap them up.

Right, I’m off to stare in wonderment at the latest anti-Dalai Lama tirade …

I’m off to Xiamen on Monday morning for a few days to eat fish balls and dried meat floss. Apparently. The holiday should go some way to protecting my long-term sanity ahead of Xinhua’s coverage of the Party congress in mid-October. I think I’ll just leave you with this article by a Chinese journalist, who works for the Global Times, on his recent “special assignment” to Burma. It has been translated by a good friend of mine Mark Binnersley, a journalist in Beijing. Obviously Xinhua News Agency has a branch in Yangon but isn’t allowed to make much use of this privilege. I thought this article serves as an example of what the average Chinese is reading about the current situation in Burma. I don’t really have time to comment on it (why do I always find myself on the computer, with bag unpacked, a few hours before my plane leaves) so make of it what you will …

Myanmar government controls the main streets and districts

Global Times journalist yesterday went on special assignment to Myanmar

By Ren Jianmin, Cheng Gang, Wang Liangliang

By September 28 the situation in Myanmar had entered a delicate period. On this day America’s CNN satellite service claimed that the Myanmar army was continuing to shoot dead more of the demonstrators, but some said the news had not been verified by a third party.

AP and AFP news agencies reported that police fired warning shots into the air, and that the military junta’s tactics had started to become effective, particularly the measure of blocking the protesting monks in their temple yards.

On the 28^th, Western media did not show any pictures of large groups of monks on the streets. But British and Australian embassy officials gave the media direct descriptions of the sounds of gunfire, guessing the numbers of people killed, obviously influencing public opinion. As a result of internet connections being cut off news from Myanmar became incomplete.

Global Times Bangkok-based journalist, on the afternoon of the 28^th entered the city that is being watched by the world, Yangon, Myanmar.

At lunchtime on September 28, Global Times journalist Ren Jianmin, without buying a ticket, anxiously rushed to Bangkok airport. Because media reports were saying Myanmar was in total chaos and a Japanese journalist had been shot dead, lots of tour groups had cancelled trips. This left this journalist feeling a bit stressed, fearing that flights to Myanmar would all be cancelled. Unexpectedly, Myanmar tickets were easy to buy at Thai Airways desk.

The plane was very empty. This journalist counted only 46 passengers on the 200-seat aeroplane, including 11 foreigners, and apart from businessmen the rest worked in Myanmar. After about two hours the plane started its descent to Yangon airport. Journalists looked out of the window and saw on the airport apron six other aircraft. According to a Thai Airways airhostess the number of people traveling to Myanmar on the company’s daily flight had not declined, but the airline had changed its evening flight to an afternoon service to get around any possible ban on nighttime landings.  

Going through Myanmar customs, foreigners and Myanmese queued separately and this journalist started to worry again because his passport stated that he was a journalist. In Bangkok journalism circles word had been going round that the Myanmar authorities were furious with journalists. It was uncertain whether the authorities would block journalists’ entry or send them back to Bangkok. Unexpectedly, the two young women customs officials processing our entry treated everyone the same and quickly stamped our passports. Passing customs, customs officials picked out some travelers for checks. When they finished looking at this journalist’s papers, the officials in not very standard Chinese said: “Xiexie”.

The drive from the airport to the hotel was uneventful, apart from a couple of junctions being blocked. According news reports, the day before had witnessed a serious conflict near the Shwedagon pagoda, which had blocked half the road, meaning that cars could only travel in one direction. At the end of the road there was a bus full of people and the small shops of the roadside were all still open, it all seemed normal. But on the roadside you could frequently see troops, and in the middle of the road there were roadblocks. In some places there were five or six army vehicles full of troops holding loaded guns, wearing steel helmets and red neckerchiefs. My local driver told Jimin me that normally the soldiers don’t wear these neckerchiefs, which signify that the soldiers are in a war situation. He also pointed out some depots on the roadside and said although these look quiet, if something happens lots of soldiers will come out from them.

Arriving at the hotel, I saw in the lift a notice reminding people that a night curfew was in place and not to go out. The hotel’s satellite TV was still broadcasting some foreign reports, including one by the DVG channel, which was repeating the previous day’s protest scenes. But there were no images of troops shooting anyone. According to local people, Myanmar TV channels had increased reporting, with the latest news being shown between other programmes.

In Yangon, journalists discovered that in every internet bar people were unable to get online, and many internet bars had just shut up shop. But according to local people, it was much easier to make long distance phone calls today than it had during the previous two days. Three days before all long distance phones had been cut off and even many national lines were not working. Near to Yangon University, on Detong Road, there is a telephone booth where lots of foreign students had queued up in the hope of calling home, but even this had been cut off. But on the 28^th this journalist discovered that the phone was working again. At the hotel I was able to call family in Bangkok and the office in Beijing, and the connection was extremely quick. It was uncertain whether this was a signal that the Myanmar government had “already got the situation under control”.

Maybe what this journalist saw in Myanmar is only one aspect. On the 28^th, CNN reported witnesses’ claims that the army had again opened fire on demonstrators to disperse the crowds. Another Western media organization broadcast a video of protesters at the end of one street dispersing amid gunfire, but the time that the incident happened was unclear and you couldn’t see whether anyone had been killed. American, British and Australian embassy officials made statements to the media that caught everyone’s attention. British ambassador Mark Canning told CNN that on the 28^th soldiers had really shot at protesters. “I heard the sound of gunfire for 15 to 20 minutes,” he said. AFP on the 28^th reported an Australian embassy official’s description of the conflict the day before, claiming: “Witnesses are saying that people killed by the army are higher than the Myanmar authorities are admitting, maybe 10 times more.”

But there has still been no believable evidence that the reports of the new “bloody conflict” by the Western media are true. AP and AFP both claimed on the 28th that soldiers were firing towards the sky, and using batons to disperse people. As for demonstrator numbers, every media organization’s figures were different. AP said there are 2,000 people, AFP said there are 1,000. And even CNN said according to some reports the monks have “already been brought under control”.

On September 28, Myanmar’s official media The New Light of Myanmar carried a front page story, under the headline “Truths and Falsehoods in Myanmar’s Political Field of Vision” criticizing the protesters for breaking up Myanmar’s unity and stability. On the last page, the newspaper carried two notices in large font. The first notice on just two lines said: “The Voice of America and the BBC have told huge lies”, warning these two media organizations: “Be careful you saboteurs”. According to this newspaper’s journalist based in America, Voice of America’s Burmese language channel has increased its reporting time two-fold lately. The second notice said: “The people wish for stability, peace and don’t want chaos and violence.” Besides that, The New Light of Myanmar on its back page carried a report on the conflict in the country on the 27^th. The report said: “The crowds of demonstrators armed with stones, bows and arrows, sticks and knives attacked security forces and attempted to seize their weapons, but the security forces stopped them many times but couldn’t control the situation. They had no choice but to fire their guns in the air to warn the people. A total of 31 members of the security forces were hurt and nine demonstrators were killed, while 10 males and one woman were hurt.”

On the 27^th, America, France and some other countries continued to announce punitive sanctions against Myanmar. America announced that it would freeze funds of 14 Myanmar government officials. According BBC reports, even America’s first lady Laura Bush has become more interested in events in Myanmar lately. She often meets with people from Myanmar who hold different political opinions about the country. In August this year, Laura even called the United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon to talk about Myanmar’s problems. For any first lady, these are unusual activities. A CNN analysis said as Bush approaches the end of his term as president, he is determined to see change in Myanmar. This is part of an attempt to alter the effect the Iraq war has had on his image, changing him from a “war crazed president” to a “founder of democratic peace”.

But as a result of many years of sanctions against Myanmar by America and Europe, these new measures won’t have much effect. Therefore America and Europe hope that Myanmar’s surrounding countries including India, China and ASEAN will increase pressure on Myanmar’s government. But India’s foreign ministry announced on Thursday that Myanmar’s government and society should “use all peaceful means to solve this problem”. ASEAN countries Thailand and Singapore cautiously expressed: “We are watching developments”, Malaysia said: “The only way to solve this crisis is peacefully”. Australia’s foreign minister said: “Australia won’t copy America because these measures are not effective at all”. Even a day after a Japanese journalist was killed in Myanmar, Japan said it would not stop aid to Myanmar. Additionally, Singapore’s foreign minister revealed that Myanmar has already given United Nations Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari his visa and he is on his way to the country.

Events in Myanmar have sparked international concern, and some Western media and politicians are increasingly saying that China has a big responsibility in the situation, announcing: “Only China can influence the final outcome of the situation”. Reuters news agency even reported that European Parliament vice president Edward McMillan-Scott, an experienced Conservative party European parliamentarian, appealed to Europe to boycott the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing as a way of pressuring the Chinese. According to Singapore’s United Morning Post on the 28^th, the editor of British internet magazine Spiked and columnist in The Times newspaper Mick Hume said in a column that the West has suddenly become interested in Myanmar democracy, putting all the pressure on China. But in fact this reflects the West’s increasing concern over China’s rise. They want to steer China towards taking the “international community” route, making China play the role of “third-rate regional policeman”.

Yunnan University, South East Asia Research Office chief Li Chenyang said to Global Times that out of all the countries that the West doesn’t like, Myanmar is the one of the most moderate ones. Myanmar always pursues closed and neutral foreign policy, and never makes it known what it thinks of other countries’ affairs and international hot issues. Because 90 percent of Myanmese believe in Buddhism, they are not crazy extremists. They don’t take part in terrorist activities, try to spread their religion to other countries, nor do they have the capability to produce biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction, so they’re not really a threat to America and Western security. But because Myanmar sits in the middle of China, India and ASEAN its strategic position is quite important. American media almost every year issue propaganda that China is building a military port in Myanmar. Additionally, Myanmar has plentiful supplies of gas and minerals, and recently has discovered rich oil reserves. In fact, Myanmar’ military junta has been in government for a number of decades and lately America and Europe have only been paying attention to Myanmar because they are interested in its resources.

Yunnan Province School of Social Science vice chief He Shengda thinks Myanmar’s military junta’s ability to control the country is quite total and the monks’ momentum in the current situation has already shrunk. Myanmese don’t want to sink into chaos. In this situation, as long as the government could take adequate action, especially suitable measures as far as people’s livelihoods are concerned, and reassure ordinary people, peace could still possibly return to Myanmar in a short time. He Shengda said Myanmar’s military junta has decided its political roadmap. Myanmar’s national parliament has already in principal passed a constitutional framework, but the West is not happy about this and is not prepared to easily let go. He thinks Myanmar’s domestic livelihood issues are more urgent. If Myanmar could quickly return to a peaceful national mood, tension will be alleviated, and the worsening effects of external influences will be limited.