REFLECTIONS IN A CHINESE EYE

Walk On The Wild Side

Imitation Outrage: Faking Concern for the Chinese Masses

from Peking Duck

Original Article at Huffington Post

Do Westerners care about human rights in China?

This journalist clearly believes they do not.

Let’s stop jacking the Chinese around. We do not care a whit now — nor have we ever cared — about their human rights or any other aspect of their lives as long as they satiate our unbridled appetites. To pretend otherwise is to deny centuries of exploitative history in which the West drugged the Middle Kingdom and plundered it for its resources and cheap labor while obliterating any sign of popular resistance to our imperial sway.

From the Opium Wars to the contemplation of using nuclear weapons to bomb China back to the Stone Age because of our differences with it over Korea and Vietnam, the response of the West has been one of brute intimidation. Never have we been willing to acknowledge that China, for all of its immense contradictions, upheavals, sufferings and errant ways, represents the most complex and impressive example of national history.

Instead we intrude upon China in fitful moments of pique or treat it as a plaything. Who owns China? That was the question that marked the first period of U.S. involvement, when we joined other Western imperialists in carving up China into economic zones. And then came the bitter argument in the U.S. in the late 1940s and the ’50s about “Who lost China?” Now Americans find themselves preoccupied with how best to exploit China’s amazing economic prowess while feigning interest in the well-being of its people.

My problem with the article is the use of the word “We,” as if this lack of interest in human rights in China is monolithic and universal. Is it not possible that many of us care about human rights violations in China? Who is the “We” that doesn’t “care a whit” about the subject? Who are these “Americans” who feel this way? Are they to a large degree strawmen?

I would probably agree that most of the government and the oligarchy of multinational companies don’t care much if at all. But there are many sincere people in the West who do truly care. They are probably the same people who care about human rights in other countries, the kind of people who were appalled at the treatment by the US military of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and who spoke out against atrocities committed in the name of the “war on terror.” Most Western journalists I know in China care deeply about the plight of dissidents in China. I know I do, just as I care about the repression of women in Saudi Arabia, or the arrest and torture and murder of innocents in Syria.

Read more at Peking Duck

The U.S. Cannot Confront China on Every Move it Disagrees With

Republicans criticizing Obama for not being tougher on China's human-rights abuses are delusional about where America stands in today's global power dynamic, says Zachary Karabell.

The saga of Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng has become the latest source of tension between China and the United States. And the way that story has entered domestic American politics sheds disturbing light on how in denial the United States remains about the state of the world in the early 21st century.

Since at least the time of Woodrow Wilson, the United States has approached the world with a particular moral framework. Of course, you can find strains of morality well before that, but the modern lens owes much to an early-20th-century spirit that saw Americans championing the rights of individuals to freedom of expression, religion, and democracy, as well as the right of nations to be free from the threat of invasion by rapacious competitors. Americans frequently violated those principles in practice, but they remained woven into the tapestry of American foreign policy.

For every realist like Henry Kissinger who treated human rights as secondary to maintaining the international order, there was a Jimmy Carter who placed human rights at the center of his foreign policy agenda. Historians will note, correctly, that the actual differences in foreign policy were less sharp than the rhetorical ones, but at no point could an administration abjure concern for human rights altogether.

In the second half of the 20th century, American foreign policy unfolded in the context of overwhelming power and competition with the Soviet Union. The Soviets, with their gulags and political prisoners, were seen as human-rights violators par excellence. While America could do little to ease the plight of Soviet dissenters, it could present itself as a beacon of hope and freedom compared to the harsh authoritarianism of the Soviets. As for the Chinese under Mao and the Cultural Revolution, that regime was seen as even more beyond the pale, but was less a focus of American policy. In both cases, there was little in the way of trade or economic links. There was only rivalry and the threat of war. A firm commitment to human rights was part of a global struggle, carried few costs, and allowed the United States to stand on the side of angels.For every realist like Henry Kissinger who treated human rights as secondary to maintaining the international order, there was a Jimmy Carter who placed human rights at the center of his foreign policy agenda. Historians will note, correctly, that the actual differences in foreign policy were less sharp than the rhetorical ones, but at no point could an administration abjure concern for human rights altogether. , AFP / Getty Images ; Tom Wargacki, WireImage / Getty Images

Read more at The Daily Beast

Fake Chinese beer seized in Metro Manila

The Bureau of Customs (BOC) has seized from three warehouses in Metro Manila nearly 10,000 bottles and cans of counterfeit Chinese beer that was illegally imported into the country.

The beer, contained in 780 cases, was valued at over P395,000 with unpaid duties and taxes of P221,362, said Customs Commissioner Ruffy Biazon.

The fake Tsingtao beer was also declared “unsafe for consumption” following an inspection and testing by authorized distributors of China’s second largest brewery, Biazon said.

The customs chief said the distributors declared the beer unfit for consumption due to the disparity in container sizes, particularly the bottled beer.

Read morer at Global Nation

Chinese are coming and building one of the biggest developments in Ireland

Plan for China trade hub to be set up in the midlands of Ireland is unveiled

By JANE WALSH,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Plans for a 300-acre international China trade hub in Athlone have been unveiled.

The Europe China Trading Hub at Creggan, near Athlone, Co. Westmeath will provide a base for Chinese companies to promote business in Europe and the western world, the Irish Independent reports.

The proposed lucrative one-stop trade and exhibition center will initially create 1,530 jobs and the team involved say the first phase could be up and running in three years. The estimated cost of the five-phase development is $1.8 billion (1.4 billion euro).

Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Chinese-are-coming-and-building-one-of-the-biggest-developments-in-Ireland-149800275.html#ixzz1tpvxneOr

U.S., China grapple with trust gap amid Chen fallout

Ananth Krishnan

Chinese police officers watch over journalists outside the hospital where Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng is recuperating in Beijing on Thursday. Photo:AP

United States and Chinese officials on Thursday called for measures to deepen trust at the start of an annual strategic dialogue, a day after the two countries grappled with a major diplomatic crisis over the case of Chinese lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng.

The fate of the visually challenged rights campaigner remained unclear on Thursday after it emerged that he had expressed strong reservations about a deal reached by U.S. and Chinese officials to arrange his leaving of the American Embassy in Beijing, following a six-day stand-off with Chinese authorities.

U.S. officials came under strong criticism from activists on Wednesday after Mr. Chen revealed that he had actually wanted to leave China along with his family, and only agreed to exit the embassy after Chinese officials threatened to send his wife back to their home village in Shandong, where she had been beaten by local security personnel in recent days.

Mr. Chen spent Thursday at Beijing's Chaoyang hospital, which was surrounded by dozens of police personnel. He is receiving treatment for injuries sustained during his daring escape from Dongshigu village, where he had been kept under illegal house arrest for more than a year and a half on account of his legal activism against forced abortions.

U.S. officials on Thursday mounted a defence of the deal they reached with Chinese officials, saying Mr. Chen had changed his mind after agreeing to a deal to enroll in a university in China following assurances given by Chinese authorities over the safety of his family.

Read more at The Hindu 

Activist: U.S. will help me leave China



Chen Guangcheng regrets leaving U.S. Embassy

BEIJING (CNN) -

Chen Guangcheng, the Chinese activist at the center of a diplomatic firestorm, reiterated his intention to leave China and said he expects U.S. assistance.

"I believe they will help me," he told CNN in an interview early Friday, but declined to elaborate.

The activist, who left the refuge of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing after he escaped house arrest in his eastern China hometown, said Thursday that he regretted the move and now wants U.S. officials to help get him and his family to the United States.

Now in a hospital, Chen told CNN in an interview early Friday that he spoke with U.S. representatives by phone Thursday. They also met with his wife, Yuan Weijing.

When Chen left the embassy Wednesday, it was announced that the United States and China had worked out a deal for his future.

Read more at (ONE OF FIVE PAGES) KOAT

Blind activist goes free after promises of safety

BEIJING — A blind Chinese activist who fled persecution by local officials in his rural town and sparked a diplomatic standoff by holing up in the U.S. Embassy for six days emerged Wednesday after U.S. officials said China had assured his safety.

Chen Guangcheng's escape from illegal house arrest in eastern China and his flight into the protection of U.S. diplomats in Beijing last week had threatened to derail annual U.S.-China strategic talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton starting Thursday.

U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke escorted Chen to Chaoyang Hospital, where he was reunited with his family as he awaited medical treatment for injuries suffered during his escape. On the way, the activist called his lawyer, Li Jinsong, who said Chen told him: "'I'm free. I've received clear assurances.'"

Chen, 40, also received a call from Clinton, whom he thanked in Chinese for raising his case, a U.S. official said. Chen then told Clinton in halting English, "'I want to kiss you,'" the official said.

A close friend of Chen's gave a sharply different account, saying Chinese officials forced Chen to choose between going into exile alone or staying in China with his family.

Zeng Jinyan said she spoke by phone with Chen and his wife while he was in the hospital. A disappointed-sounding Chen told her that his wife's life had been threatened, she said.

"He said what he wanted was totally different but because no one can protect his wife and children" he had to accept, Zeng said via Skype.

Read more at STATESMAN

How Muddy Waters spots fraud in China

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Investing in China can be complicated, to say the least. Just ask Carson Block, the founder of Muddy Waters Research, known for his keen eye for spotting fraudulent accounting practices at Chinese companies.

Block first noticed a deep-rooted problem within Chinese companies, particularly those listed on U.S. and Canadian stock exchanges, less than two years ago. At the request of his father, who was seeking to invest in small Chinese companies, Block looked into Orient Paper (ONP), a paper manufacturer and distributor based in the Hebei province and listed on the American Stock Exchange.

After digging into the company's financial documents and visiting a manufacturing plant, Block issued a report calling the company a fraud, alleging that it misappropriated tens of millions of dollars and overstated its revenue, assets, inventory and profit margin figures.

He sent his report, which highlighted Muddy Waters' bet against the stock, to just 50 acquaintances in the investment world. It went viral, and Orient Paper's stock sank almost 40% in the three days following the report's release.

Read more at CNN MONEY

Chinese activist leaves U.S. Embassy on 'own volition'

Human rights activist Chen Guangcheng appears on YouTube after slipping away from house arrest

Beijing (CNN) -- A Chinese human rights activist who escaped house arrest and took refuge in the U.S. Embassy in Beijing left for a hospital Wednesday, opening a new chapter in the life of a man at the center of a controversy between the United States and China.

Chen Guangcheng's presence in the U.S. Embassy prompted a flurry of diplomatic activity between the United States and China. It threatened to overshadow U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's scheduled meetings with senior Chinese leaders this week.

The situation has presented a complex test for the Obama administration's approach to relations with China, creating a strain between upholding human rights and maintaining steady ties with Beijing.

Chen departed the embassy "of his own volition" after spending six days there, reported Xinhua, the state-run Chinese news agency. He will be treated at a medical facility in the Chinese capital, where he will be reunited with his family, a senior U.S. official said.

Read more at CNN

How Chongqing People View Bo Xilai

One April day in my birth city of Chongqing, I encountered a rare quarrel in People’s Park. The park is one of several places in downtown Chongqing that offer low-cost “baba cha” (open-space tea), where retirees and others with time on their hands lounge under leafy banyan trees with their teacups and bird cages for a good part of the day. Two fiftyish men sat at a plastic table drinking tea and chatting about Bo Xilai, their city’s ousted leader. One of the men said that Bo’s promotion of “people’s livelihood” had been a fake show, because during his four-year rule, prices of meat, food, and other daily goods had risen steeply in Chongqing. Two young women, who happened to be nearby, cellphones in hand and apparently waiting for someone, did not like what they heard and started to argue that Bo made Chongqing better. The man got very upset; his face reddened and he raised his voice, which attracted the attention of onlookers, including me. I asked the man whether his criticism was formed after Bo’s downfall. He was insulted. “This has always been my opinion! I’m not brainless, I was once a journalist!” he yelled.

Tea-drinkers in People's Park, Chongqing (April 2012)

This scene is rare because, seemingly illogically, in the weeks since his downfall, Bo’s local dissenters have been much quieter than his supporters.

Chongqing people’s attitudes toward Bo Xilai range from supportive to condemnatory to “who cares” and everything in between, a broad spectrum with two heavy ends. (For the indifferent, a typical expression I often heard was “The gods fighting is none of our business.”) So far, however, foreign journalists seem to have a hard time penetrating the famous fog of the river-mountain city to find more than one stratum of views. In the English media it is easy to see headlines such as “Bo Xilai Still Admired Locally in China” and “Bo Xilai Remains Popular in Megacity He Once Oversaw.” In those reports quoting “the average people on the street,” the term “average people” generally does not include intellectuals, writers, journalists, academics, and so forth.

In fact, among local intellectuals, professionals, and the middle class, there has been an overwhelming sentiment against Bo’s doings in Chongqing since 2009, according to a dozen such men and women I have spoken to this month, all of whom requested anonymity. One reason their opinions have not been widely reflected in the foreign media is that they are much more reluctant to speak than the “stick men” (棒棒, or porters-for-hire) who roam the streets. When I asked why they were still afraid of speaking up even after Bo was gone, a local journalist told me that the government had issued orders forbidding them from talking to foreign journalists.

Read more at INSIDE-OUT CHINA

Ageing population should see China and Australia joined at hip

THERE are 8 million Chinese over 80 years of age and, by some estimates, there will be 100 million Chinese octogenarians by the middle of this, the Asian century.

And although old age may bring brittle bones, there is a view that Australia's ties to China could benefit from a hip replacement. Half a million even.

That's how many operations Stephen Leeder, the director of Sydney's Menzies Centre for Health Policy, estimates will be needed in China each year by 2050 - offering Australia a unique chance to foster closer links with Beijing by helping China cope with the consequences of an ageing population.

Professor Leeder yesterday told former Treasury boss Ken Henry, who is drafting the federal government's forthcoming white paper Australia in the Asian Century, that Australia should spruik its medical expertise in the region, not only in aged care, but also, as China's economy grows, what he calls the ''unintended consequences'' of middle-class life, such as increased rates of diabetes and heart disease.

''We know how to fix hips, we know what to do in terms of preventative strategies,'' Professor Leeder said.

''We've got a chance while these populations are ageing to put in place preventative strategies against the unintended consequences of middle-class affluence that could save them a motza.''

Read more at:  Murcury

Contraceptive Use In China

China’s shifting cultural norms regarding sexuality are at odds with existing state healthcare coverage.

by Rachel Will

"Carry out birth planning for the revolution" (IISH / Stefan R. Landsberger Collections)

“Carry out birth planning for the revolution.”

The standard issue propaganda poster, along with its countless similar replications, was a patriotic call for birth control in the name of productivity and health. China was already short on food and resources, and with the country’s population exploding, the future looked positively slim. The government’s earliest efforts to control the burgeoning populace came in the form of these slogans and national dictums, which later expanded to include contraceptive use.

“20 years ago if you went to the rural villages, you could see the slogans on the wall that read, ‘if you have one child, IUD please, if you have two children, sterilization please,’” describes Kaining Zhang, a research physician at the Yunnan Health and Development Research Association. “There is still a very strong influence [from that] policy.”

Today, attitudes towards sexuality and reproductive health have dramatically shifted in China. The once taboo topics have been the subjects of national campaigns to increase sexual health awareness, and a survey by Renmin University shows that more than half of all respondents think premarital sex is acceptable. 

Government policy and more traditional viewpoints remain deeply influential on Chinese attitudes toward contraception and birth control. Yet with rapidly changing world views and sexual habits among China’s younger generations, outdated policies have created a shortage of free state health services for millions.

Methods and trends

China has one of the highest rates of contraceptive use in the world with 84.6% prevalence among women who are currently married or in union. In comparison, the United States has a 78.6% prevalence, and China’s next largest neighbor, Japan, reports 54.3% prevalence. The high figures owe much to China’s vast network of family planning centers and other government initiatives in local communities that followed the implementation of the One-Child policy in 1979.

China’s family planning policies target married women, emphasizing permanent means of birth control, though a multitude of birth control options are available through retails stores. Individuals can visit family planning service stations in both urban and rural areas to access free birth control methods.

Sterilization has a 28.7% usage rate and is typically recommended to women following the birth of a second child. Intrauterine devices (IUDs) have a 40.6% usage rate, and though not permanent, are often promoted by state health services over temporary methods.

“There is a heavy emphasis on IUDs and sterilization, this may be a barrier [to contraceptive use] and people perhaps not wanting to use either of these two methods and finding themselves pregnant,” says Amy Tsui, Director of The Bill & Melinda Gates Institute of Population & Reproductive Health. 

Read more at US-China Today

 

Unlikely Chinese Opera Star

Tyler Thompson is an unlikely star in the world of Chinese opera. The African American teenager from Oakland has captivated audiences in the U.S. and China with his ability to sing pitch-perfect Mandarin and perform the ancient Chinese art form.

The black opera star dazzling China with his pitch-perfect Mandarin

A black teenager has captivated audiences in the U.S. and China with his ability to sing the classics of Chinese opera in pitch-perfect Mandarin

Fifteen-year-old Tyler Thompson, from Oakland, California, is an unlikely star of Chinese opera, but his ability to perform the ancient art form has earned him plaudits.

'As soon as he opens his mouth and sings in Chinese, the Chinese are very surprised and then feel very proud of him,' said his music teacher Sherlyn Chew.

Crossing cultures: Tyler Thompson rehearses with the Great Wall Youth Orchestra in Oakland, California

'When he puts on the costume, and all the acting, you can see that he's pretty good.'

Tyler, 15, is a standout student in Mrs Chew's Oakland-based Purple Silk Music Education program, which teaches children and youth - mostly from low-income immigrant families - how to sing and play traditional Chinese music.

He has learned to sing several well-known pieces of Chinese opera, a centuries-old form of musical theatre known for its elaborate costumes, clanging gongs and cymbals, wide-ranging vocals and highly stylised movements.

At the World Children's Festival in Washington in June, Tyler, dressed in a black robe emblazoned with golden dragons, won a standing ovation when he performed as Justice Bao, a famous Song Dynasty judge who fought government corruption, from the Chinese classic 'Bao Qing Tian.'

'The music is very beautiful, and it's very passionate. You can hear it when it's being played,' said Tyler, a theatre student at the Oakland School for the Arts.

'It's made me want to know more about the world outside of America or California or Oakland.'

Dress rehearsal: The 15-year-old Oakland native, who sings traditional Chinese opera in Mandarin, plans to perform in China this summer

David Lei, chairman of the Chinese Performing Arts Foundation in San Francisco, has seen Tyler perform several times and arranged to have him sing at the opening of a Chinese opera exhibit several years ago.

'It's very authentic because he hits the tones just right, so you understand everything,' Lei said.

'People just don't expect an Afro-American kid to be doing it. It's the initial shock. There's a sense of novelty.'

Tyler, who comes from a music-loving family, began learning how to sing in Chinese a decade ago when he was a kindergartner in Mrs Chew's music class at Oakland's Lincoln Elementary School, where about 90 percent of students are Asian.

Mrs Chew quickly recognized Tyler's talent and recruited him to join her Purple Silk music program, where students learn to sing Chinese songs and play traditional instruments.

'I really took a liking to him and thought he had quite a large range,' said Mrs Chew, who started the music program at Oakland's Laney College in 1995.

'He hears pitch very well, and his pronunciation of Chinese characters is very accurate.'

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019315/Tyler-Thompson-Black-opera-star-dazzling-China-pitch-perfect-Mandarin.html#ixzz1TJnOcURj[/QUOTE

 

 

China Does Capitalism Better Than America

China Does Capitalism Better Than America from Intelligence Squared U.S. Debates on FORA.tv

How Do You Say 'Badonkadonk' in Chinese?

Feb 8 2012, 3:09 PM ET The story of OMG! Meiyu, Jessica Beinecke's wildly popular web video series for Chinese who want to learn American slang.

That language shapes culture and vice versa seems intuitive and axiomatic. Language and educational exchanges have always been a defining feature of the U.S.-China relationship. Regular people-to-people exchanges, including the State Department's "100,000 Strong" initiative started under President Obama, have been important to the bilateral relationship because of persistent and often serious mutual distrust. The experience of teaching English in China was perhaps most memorably captured in Peter Hessler's book Rivertown. Like Hessler and many Americans since, I too was once an English teacher in China, attempting to dissect the ingenuity of Jay-Z and explicating Hamlet's neurosis to my students. Though I can't say they fully understood the significance of H.O.V.A and To Be or Not to Be (I'm still not sure I do either), I hope they at least learned something about the diversity of America.

Given that experience, I was delighted to discover that, in the age of YouTube and social media, American English lessons have been taken to another level. Meet Jessica Beinecke, a Voice of America journalist who decided that she could leverage all the web 2.0 tools at her disposal to create a show that taught Chinese youth American slang. It's shot with only a webcam and was exclusively on Chinese Youku until recently migrating to YouTube. A profile in the Washington Post describes the show:

Read more at The Atlantic

Chinese artist’s ‘ugly’ doll photos metaphor for Chinese people’s anguish; exhibit in NYC

NEW YORK — Liu Xia is a forbidden artist whose work is censored in her native China. The photographer, who is under house arrest, uses life-like dolls as metaphors for the pain and suffering of the Chinese people.

Liu knows what it is to work in an oppressed society. Her husband is Liu Xiaobo, the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner jailed in 2009 for 11 years for urging democratic reform in China.

But Liu’s photographs are not about her husband, said Guy Sorman, a friend of the couple and curator of an exhibition of her works opening at Columbia University on Thursday evening.

“This is not about politics first. It’s about art first. Her husband is his own story. She is a major Chinese artist who happens to be the wife of Liu Xiaobo,” Sorman said in a telephone interview from Paris.

The 25 photos were spirited out of China just before Liu was placed under house arrest at the end of 2010 after her husband was awarded the Nobel prize.

Read more at The Washington Post

The Boxer Rebellion and the U.S. Navy, 1900-1901

DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY -- NAVAL HISTORY AND HERITAGE COMMAND

• Selected Documents of the Boxer Rebellion
• Bibliography on the Boxer Rebellion
• Battle Streamer: China Relief Expedition 1900-1901
• Lieutenant Commander George H. Rose, USNR (1880-1932)
• Medal: China Relief Expedition
• Navy Medal of Honor: Boxer Rebellion 1900

The origins of anti-Western attitudes in China are difficult to trace, but widespread dislike by the population at large goes back to at least the Opium War between Britain and China (1839-1842). These feelings worsened over the course of the 19th century as Western colonial powers, as well as Russia and Japan, negotiated for, leased, and even seized portions of the Chinese Empire. Following the 1895 Sino-Japanese War, several European powers secured territorial and commercial concessions from China, including the 1897 seizure of Kiaochow and Tsingtao by Imperial Germany. This intervention precipitated a new wave of even bolder efforts to force concessions from China, further exacerbating tensions.

Anti-foreign sentiment resulted in the rapid growth of a Chinese secret society (which had existed for centuries) known as the I Ho Ch'uan (Righteous Harmonious Fists), but referred to by the Westerners as `Boxers.' The Boxers called for the expulsion of the `foreign devils' and their Chinese Christian converts. The society stressed the ritualistic use of the martial arts and traditional Chinese weapons. Anti-foreign incidents, including the burning of homes and businesses, increased dramatically in 1898 and 1899, and was primarily directed at Chinese Christians. The number of killings by the Boxers continued to grow, and on 30 December 1899 included a British missionary. Western governments lodged strong protests with the Chinese Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi. She responded on 11 January 1900, with a declaration that the Boxers represented a segment of Chinese society, and should not be labeled a criminal organization. Her unenthusiastic support for the Chinese Army's attempts at quelling the violence and the influence of Boxer sympathizers at the Imperial court, led Western governments to deploy military forces on the Chinese coast to protect their citizens and interests.

By spring 1900, Boxer violence was virtually unchecked by Chinese authorities. On 30 May, the foreign ministers at Peking (today known as Beijing, but at the time referred to as Pekin) called for troops to protect the legations at Peking. Four hundred and thirty Sailors and Marines (including fifty-six Americans from USS Oregon and USS Newark) from eight countries arrived at the legations on 31 May and 4 June. On 9 June, the Boxers began attacking foreign property in Peking, and the senior foreign minister, Great Britain's Sir Claude MacDonald, requested a sizable relief force just before the telegraph lines were cut.

Read moe at The Boxer Rebellion and the U.S. Navy

 

Happy Chinese workers spell the end of affordable tech

By Jason Perlow | February 2, 2012, 12:41pm PST

Summary: Human and worker rights reforms in China would have serious negative consequences for the efficiency and cost of the gadget supply chain.

Recent coverage in the media over worker conditions in the Chinese factories which manufacture Apple’s products have “exposed” much of what all of us in the technology industry already knew but were unwilling to accept — that China is the most powerful engine of production for the technology industry, and that the blood, sweat and tears of Chinese workers is what fuels that hungry engine, at a tremendous cost to human rights.

Also See: The dark side of shiny Apple products (CBS News)

I really don’t want to focus on the Apple side of this problem because the concern is an industry-wide problem. Apple was targeted because they are the largest and most powerful consumer electronics company in the world, but their situation is not unique.

The outsourced manufacturing subcontractors that Apple uses such as Hon Hai Precision Industry (Foxconn) are used industry-wide, by some of the largest players in technology.

Foxconn’s clientele reads like a celebrity tech roster that includes Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Intel, Lenovo, IBM, Cisco/Linksys, Netgear, Microsoft, Sharp, Sony, Motorola, Asus, Acer and Vizio.

And on Foxconn’s celebrity clientele list I will also include the second and third place tablet runners and e-reader champions Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Yes, your Kindles and Nooks are also made by the very same companies with the same awful working conditions.

As much as I think the Android crowd would love to claim moral superiority to Apple as it relates to the production of their toys, it can’t.

So we should cut to the chase that Apple is absolutely not unique in having products made by workers which are paid far below that of Americans, that work unbelievably long hours in sweatshops using child labor under conditions that rival that of the worst factories during the industrial revolution in America and Europe of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Read more at ZDNet

China Considers Offering Aid in Europe’s Debt Crisis

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, left, with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, who is on a three-day visit to China.By KEITH BRADSHER and LIZ ALDERMAN

HONG KONG — Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday that China would consider working with the International Monetary Fund to help shore up Europe’s finances. But he left unclear whether China was willing to drop conditions that so far have made its proposed help unappealing to European nations.

While Chinese leaders have pledged not to link political demands to financial investments, they have sought concessions, such as getting the European Union to relax trade strictures against low-cost Chinese goods. Mr. Wen’s comments came at a Beijing news conference after he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on the first day of her three-day visit to China.

Mrs. Merkel is the first of several European leaders scheduled to visit China this month, as China’s huge holdings of foreign exchange reserves have begun to give it financial influence that could potentially rival Washington’s.

Mr. Wen said that Chinese officials were studying whether the country should be “involving itself more” in helping Europe solve its debt troubles by investing in the region’s two big rescue packages: the existing European Financial Stability Facility and the planned European Stability Mechanism. China’s contributions could be channeled through the I.M.F., he said.

Lending money to the I.M.F. to, in turn, relend to Europe would effectively transfer more of the risk of any European debt default to the I.M.F. China has previously made clear that it would need to buffer the risk of lending more money to Europe.

Russia in December embraced the lending approach now being mulled by China, but Moscow was willing to lend the I.M.F. only $20 billion — an amount of limited help as Europe tries to expand its bailout funds by hundreds of billions of dollars.

Britain has also said it would consider sending more money to the I.M.F. to help with Europe’s troubles — but only after the Europeans demonstrated they were finally taking bold steps to stem the contagion.

China had $3.18 trillion in foreign exchange reserves at the end of December, dwarfing the reserves of every other country and potentially giving it the financial firepower to make a significant contribution.

Read more at The New York Times

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They Choose China

In this feature documentary, Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera at the astonishing story of 21 American soldiers who opted to stay in China after the Korean War ended in 1954. Back home in the United States, McCarthyism was at its height and many Americans believed these men were brainwashed by Chinese communists. But what really happened? Using never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps and interviews with former PoWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents.

Uploaded by freespeechtv on Dec 20, 2011

List of American Defectors During Korean War

List of defectors

American

Adams, Clarence (Cpl.)

A soldier from Memphis, Tennessee. Adams cited racial discrimination in the United States as the reason he refused repatriation. While a prisoner, Adams took classes in Communist political theory, and afterwards lectured other prisoners in the camps. During the Vietnam War, Adams made propaganda broadcasts for Radio Hanoi from their Chinese office, telling black American soldiers not to fight:

You are supposedly fighting for the freedom of the Vietnamese, but what kind of freedom do you have at home, sitting in the back of the bus, being barred from restaurants, stores and certain neighborhoods, and being denied the right to vote. ... Go home and fight for equality in America.

He married a Chinese woman and lived in China until the increasingly anti-Western atmosphere of the Cultural Revolution led him to return to the United States in 1966. Adams was charged with treason by the House Un-American Activities Committee, but charges were dismissed.^[2] He later started a Chinese restaurant business in Memphis. Clarence Adams died in 1999. His autobiography An American Dream: The Life of an African American Soldier and POW Who Spent Twelve Years in Communist China was posthumously published in 2007 by his daughter Della Adams and Lewis H. Carlson.^[3]

Adams, Howard (Sgt.)

From Corsicana, Texas.^[4] He worked in a paper factory in Jinan, China.^[4] He refused all media requests for interviews.^[5]

Belhomme, Albert Constant (Sgt.)

A native of Belgium who immigrated to the United States as a teenager. He lived in China for ten years, working in a paper factory in Jinan, before returning to Antwerp, Belgium.^[5][4]

Bell, Otho Grayson (Cpl.)

Originally from Olympia, Washington.^[4] In China was sent to a collective farm with William Cowart and Lewis Griggs (see below). Bell described himself, Cowart and Griggs as "the dummy bunch", saying they were sent to the farm because they could not learn Chinese. They returned to the United States together in July 1955, were arrested, but were released when it was found that the military no longer had jurisdiction over the defectors after they were dishonorably discharged. Bell died in 2003.^[5]

Corden, Richard (Sgt.)

A native of Chicago, Illinois. He returned to the United States on 19 January, 1958. He was reported to live in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1961 and moved to Chicago in 1962.^[4] He reportedly continued to favor communism even after returning to the United States.^[5] He died in 1988.

Cowart, William (Cpl.)

Returned with Bell and Griggs. Later the three soldiers sued for their back pay. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, which held that Bell, Cowart and Griggs were entitled to their back pay from the time they were captured to the time they were dishonorably discharged.^[6]

Douglas, Rufus (Sgt.)

Died in China a few months after arrival in 1954. The manner of his death is not certain but is believed to have been from natural causes.^[5]

Dunn, John Roedel (Cpl.)

From Altoona, Pennsylvania.^[4] He married a Czechoslovakian woman while in China and settled in Czechoslovakia in December 1959.^[4][5]

Fortuna, Andrew (Sgt.)

Originally from Greenup, Kentucky.^[4] He was awarded two Bronze Stars for his service in Korea before he was captured.^[5] He returned to the United States on July 3, 1957. He worked in Portsmouth, Ohio in 1958, in Detroit, Michigan from 1963-64 and Chicago in 1964. He was reported to be in Gary, Indiana as of 1964.^[4] He died in 1984.^[5]

Griggs, Lewis Wayne

Returned with Bell and Cowart in 1955. He was listed as a senior majoring in sociology at Stephen F. Austin State University, graduating in 1959.^[7][8] He died in 1984.

Hawkins, Samuel David (Pfc.)

From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He married a Russian woman in China and returned to the United States in February 1957, shortly before his wife was permitted to come to the United States. He successfully petitioned the government to change his discharge from dishonorable to other than honorable. He raised a family, and has given interviews to the press on the condition that his location not be disclosed.^[5]

Pate, Arlie (Cpl.)

Worked in a paper mill before returning with Aaron Wilson (see below) in 1956. He died in 1999.^[5]

Rush, Scott (Sgt.)

Married in China. After living in China ten years, he and his wife moved back to the United States and settled in the Midwest.^[5]

Skinner, Lowell (Cpl. )

His mother begged him to come home over the radio at the time of the prisoner exchange, to no avail. He married in China, but left his wife behind when he came back to America in 1963. Later he would have problems with alcohol and spent six months in a psychiatric hospital. He died in 1995.^[9]

Sullivan, LaRance

Came home in 1958 and died in 2001.^[5]

Tenneson, Richard (Pfc.)

Came home in 1955. He went to Louisiana a few months later to welcome home fellow defector Aaron Wilson (see below). He settled in Utah before dying in 2001.^[5]

Veneris, James (Pvt.)

From Vandergrift, Pennsylvania. ^[4] He stayed in China and became a dedicated communist, taking the Chinese name 'Lao Wen'. He worked in a steel mill, participated in the Great Leap Forward, hung posters during the Cultural Revolution, married three times, and had children. He visited the United States in 1976 but returned to China, where he is buried.^[10]

Webb, Harold (Sgt.)

From Jacksonville, Florida^[4]. He married a Polish woman in China and moved to Poland in 1960, reportedly settling in Katowice.^[4][5] In 1988, he was given permission to settle in the United States.^[5] He is the subject of the Youth Defense League song Turncoat about rejection of a Korean War defector seeking a return to America.^[11]

White, William (Cpl.)

Married and got a bachelor's degree in international law while in China. He returned to the United States in 1965.^[5]

Wills, Morris (Cpl.)

From Fort Ann, New York.^[4] He played basketball for Peking University and got married in China. He came back to America in 1965 and got a job in the Asian Studies Department at Harvard University. His autobiography, Turncoat: An American's 12 Years in Communist China, was published in 1966. He died in 1999.^[5]

Wilson, Aaron (Cpl.)

Originally from Urania, Louisiana.^[4] He came home from China 06 December 1956^[4]. Wilson married an American girl and worked in his Louisiana hometown's mill.^[5]

Read more at Wickipedia

American Prisoners of War in China! Part 5/5

American Prisoners of War in China! Part 4/5

American Prisoners of War in China! Part 3/5