Jeb Bush shows his true colors as he seeks with pathological vengeance to destroy Michael Schiavo for daring stand up to him. This is truly sick. If I believed in God and in hell, I’d ask God to see that Bush burns there forever. Unfortunately, as an atheist, I can’t.
(I know, it’s not China-related, but when I see something this atrocious I’ve gotta speak out.)
Rebecca MacKinnon on how the infamous filters Microsoft built into MSN Spaces work. Maybe it’s not as bad as was earlier reported. I hope she’s right.
Reader Shanghai Slim has done his homework and uncovered some interesting background information on the controversial sign (apparently a fake) that we’ve been arguing about lately.
Here are the actual photos Shanghai Slim scanned (sources follow).
An early, undated photo of Huangpu park
The sign, translated above
A higher-quality close up of the sign
Compare that with the fake photo that started it all:
Shanghai Slim explains:
The photo is from a Chinese book, the translated title is “The Bund – History and Vicissitudes”, edited by Lou Rongmin, Shanghai Pictorial Publishing House, circa 1990.
The sign reads as follows:
PUBLIC AND RESERVE GARDENS.
REGULATIONS.
1. The gardens are reserved for the foreign community.
2. The Gardens are open daily to the public from 6 a.m. and will be closed half an hour after midnight.
3. No persons are admitted unless respectably dressed.
4. Dogs and bicycles are not admitted.
5. Perambulators must be confined to the paths.
6. Birdnesting, plucking flowers, climbing trees or damaging the trees, shrubs or grass is strictly prohibited; visitors and others in charge of children are requested to aid in preventing such mischief.
7. No person is allowed within the band enclosure.
8. Amahs in charge of children are not permitted to occupy the seats and chairs during band performances.
9. Children unaccompanied by foreigners are not allowed in Reserve Garden.
10. The police have instructions to enforce these regulations.
By Order,
N.O. Liddell,
Secretray, Council Room, Shanghai, Sept. 13th 1917.
Breaking news and a must-read!
Now let’s see how long it takes for People’s Daily to pick it up word for word as a serious news story.
Via Dr. ESWN.
If you are looking for good Chinese fiction to read in English, you’ll want to see this article, which ends with a list of recommendations. Via CDN.
TV news has sold out with absolutely no shame, existing only to boost ad revenues by appealing to the prurient interests of a salivating lily-white audience that can’t get enough “news” about damsels in distress — provided those damsels are lily white and pretty. I hope exposure like this helps end this media malaise, which is a total disservice to people who actually want to learn about what’s going on in the world. Guilt is across the board; CNN is just as bad as Fox in this regard.
Most painful of all is to see trash like this become rich off of this sleaze. Absolutely disgusting. Break the law and get rich. If you’re a pretty white lady. All because the media whores care more about their ratings than about journalism.
In the immortal words of Markos Zuniga, “Screw them.”
This is an open thread for all things China-related, and also everything else you’d like to discuss.
Please be sure to check out the new Amazon links I set up on the left, and let me know what other books you’d like me to include. As for ongoing threads, this one has been the best of the past 24 hours.
I’m still not sure about open threads being a daily feature. If I set them up and no one comments, I’ll experience a crushing loss of face and feel like a total moron. So please, comment!
I have to admit I don’t understand this.
The high-ranking Chinese diplomat who defected here two weeks ago only to be rebuffed by the Australian government says he also sought political asylum at the United States Embassy, and was turned away there as well.
The defector, Chen Yonglin, a 37-year-old career diplomat, said in his first interview with a foreign journalist that he had called the American Embassy in Canberra and followed up with a fax.
“My wife, my 6-year old daughter and I are now in a desperate status,” Mr. Chen wrote on June 4 in imperfect English in his faxed appeal, which he showed to The New York Times. “I have no choice but seeking the only hope of political asylum of the United States.” He gave his cellphone number.
Later that day, Mr. Chen said in the interview on Monday, he received a call from an American Embassy official, whose name he could not recall, who told him the United States could do nothing for him.
Why Mr. Chen was dismissed without even an interview is not clear. Generally, in the past, defectors from Communist countries, whether athletes, dancers or diplomats, have been protected and assisted with their asylum claims.
State Department won’t comment, which leads me to think Chen’s claim is true. If so, we turned away a Chinese diplomat who could almost certainly provide us with some useful information. Why did we turn him away? As the article says, we’ve given sanctuary to defectors with far lesser credentials than Chen.
I thought that by now we’d know more, and instead the story has only grown stranger. Chen, his wife and his daughter are now in virtual hiding. A virtual political hot potato.
Update: I much appreciated this opinion from an Australian professor of Chinese history:
Chen could have just gone back to China, left the foreign service and found employ in any one of the myriad businesses that would have given him a stake in the “to get rich is glorious” ethos of his fellow countrymen.
Why he chose to defect and take such a public stance against his past must give us pause. He can’t simply be dismissed, nor should his rights be derided or indeed denied.
But Chen is belatedly learning that the Australian authorities are armed with their own laws and regulations. They have been quick to deny him political asylum and he has joined the notorious queue of refugees administered by Amanda Vanstone’s near Byzantine bloatocracy.
This isn’t the late ’80s, when this nation displayed firmer humanitarian resolve. And Fu Ying is right when she avers that her country has made progress; well, at least in comparison with its horrific totalitarian past. As for Australia, we too have moved on. The thing is, we’ve gone into reverse.
Or so it appears for now. In a story of almost unbelievable dramatic intensity, busloads of armed thugs (can’t think of a beter word for them) swooped into the village to terrorize anmd murder the farmers unwilling to surrender their land to the state. [Update: China readers who cannot open this article will find a copy here.]
Hundreds of men armed with shotguns, clubs and pipes on Saturday attacked a group of farmers who were resisting official demands to surrender land to a state-owned power plant, witnesses said. Six farmers were killed and as many as 100 others were seriously injured in one of China’s deadliest incidents of rural unrest in years.
The farmers, who had pitched tents and dug foxholes and trenches on the disputed land to prevent the authorities from seizing it, said they suspected the assailants were hired by corrupt local officials. They said scores of villagers were beaten or stabbed and several were shot in the back while fleeing.
Shengyou residents collected some of the weapons abandoned by hundreds of men who attacked them in an attempt to force them off disputed land sought by a state-owned power plant. Niu Zhanzong, 50, right, recorded a portion of the clash with a digital video camera before he was attacked.
Reached by telephone, a spokesman for the provincial government said he could not confirm or discuss the incident. “So far, we’ve been ordered not to issue any information about it,” he said.
Large contingents of police have been posted around Shengyou, about 100 miles southwest of Beijing, but bruised and bandaged residents smuggled a reporter into the village Monday and led him to a vast field littered with abandoned weapons, spent shell casings and bloody rags. They also provided footage of the melee made with a digital video camera….
Residents said the men arrived in six white buses before dawn, most of them wearing hard hats and combat fatigues, and they struck without warning, repeatedly shouting “Kill!” and “Attack!” Police failed to respond to calls for help until nearly six hours later, residents said, long after the assailants had departed.
Interestingly, the farmers captured one of the assailants, who now fears he might be murdered — by the police.
The man, Zhu Xiaorui, 23, appeared frightened but healthy, although his ankles were shackled. He said he had been recruited by a man he met at the Beijing nightclub where he worked. He said he was taken to the village, given a metal pipe and told to “teach a lesson” to the farmers, and was promised $12 for the job.
“The villagers have treated me kindly,” Zhu said, tears in his eyes. He added that he did not want to be turned over to Dingzhou police because he was afraid they would kill him for confessing to the farmers.
I read all the time that Hu and Wen are acutely aware of the nation’s growing divide between haves and have-nots and that it concerns them deeply. (And I believe it; they’d be pretty dumb not to worry.) Unfortunately, a system that allows the land to be taken away at whim, and that allows businesses to shower local residents in lethal pollution (as in Huankantou) will inevitably foster deep resentments that will swell into violence. And I have a feeling there are many, many other examples that we simply never hear of because they’re so out of the way.
I know it sounds simplistic, but wouldn’t it be refreshing to see the government crack down on the thugs and the rogue businessmen instead of the victimized farmers and peasants? I know, I’m just a dreamer…
Update: You can see actual video footage of the carnage here. It’s not pretty.
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