When I read Defence Minister Chi Haotian’s fiery speech yesterday, I intinctively knew that Imagethief, given the chance, would be all over it like a cheap suit. He didn’t disappoint. His “top ten reasons why this is crackpot” is good.

Imagethief

August 21, 2005 @ 9:28 pm | Comment

I’m pasting Dylan’s comment from the old open thread here – he paid a visit to China’s Cybercop homepage and has this to report:

Well, one of the things CPC boosters always rush to say is “things are so much better in China now, you used to worry that your neighbour would rat on you to the secret police, none of that happens now”. I’d suggest you direct those people to this page and ask them whether they would like you to report them to the cyberpolice next time you catch them putting anything on the internet vaguely subversive.

Basically this page (and there are many others run by provincial and local party organisations) has a form you can fill out to rat on your (cyber) neighbour for subversive activities. It seems to be part of the campaign to clean all “unwelcome” influences from China’s internet. It is harnessing “volunteers” to take out naughty internet sites.

August 21, 2005 @ 9:56 pm | Comment

Sorry to misuse the space, but does anybody have some info on the great big fire wall of China. I cannot get to blog-city.com? Does anybody maintain a site, what sited are blocked?

August 21, 2005 @ 11:07 pm | Comment

Yogi, yes, blog-city is blocked. There are a variety of ways you can get around the Nanny. Do you know any good proxies? We prefer not to post them here…

I’m going to defer to those here who deal with this more than I do – I’m in LA.

Gordon, maybe you can help this fellow?

August 21, 2005 @ 11:16 pm | Comment

Oooh, impress me with your knowledge of Chinese slang! Heavens…

August 21, 2005 @ 11:43 pm | Comment

By the way, Duck Roaster, I’m the guest administrator here, and I’m still trying to get a feel for what comments constitute “blatant disrespect or maliciousness” as noted in the commenting policy above. Yours is right on the line. I’m thinking about it.

August 21, 2005 @ 11:50 pm | Comment

Yogi,

Send me an email at horsesmouth-at-gmail.com

Be sure to include your blog-city blog address.

Cheers!

August 21, 2005 @ 11:56 pm | Comment

For those confused, Duck Roaster (a rude poster to whom I was responding) has left the building…believe me, you didn’t miss much.

August 22, 2005 @ 1:48 am | Comment

“Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said his country shoud take a cue from freewheeling Las Vegas.”

http://tinyurl.com/awv5s

I can imagine it now, Fear and Loathing in Singapore:

We were somewhere around Sentosa on the edge of the great shopping district when the prescription chewing gum began to take hold. I remember saying something like “I feel a bit of a sugar buzz; maybe you should drive …” And suddenly there was a barely discernible sound (due to the windows being closed and the air-conditioner on high) and the sky was filled with what looked like a small seagull, flying above the Toyota; it was hard to tell from inside the car, which was going about 25 miles an hour towards Orchard Road. And a voice was saying to no one in particular: “My goodness! Look at that pretty bird!”

Then it was quiet again. My solicitor, Percival Wong, had just loosened his tie and had opened a light beer to facilitate the cooling process.

“You’re breaking the open-container law, you know,” I scolded.

“Pardon me?” he muttered, staring up at the sun through the moon roof with his eyes closed and covered with prescription, bifocal sunglasses. “Never mind,” I said. “It’s your turn to drive.” I flipped on my right-turn signal and carefully eased the Toyota onto the shoulder, luckily finding an available legal parking space.

No point mentioning that seagull, I thought. The poor chap will see him soon enough …

I had been assigned by my paper to cover the grand opening of the new Galleria just down the street from Prominade shopping center. You never know what you’re going to run into on assignments of this sort, which is why I had brought along my personal solicitor. The word on the street was that the scene could get ugly. Designer-label hunting tai-tais and Singlish speaking SPGs who in turn were mingling with dubious southeast Asian girls hoping to send a few bucks back to their families in Chang-Mai. Three distinct groups, each pursuing its vision of the Singaporean Dream. Bad craziness, indeed.

August 22, 2005 @ 1:53 am | Comment

And next…they chewed GUM!

August 22, 2005 @ 1:57 am | Comment

Perhaps Lee is saying the family running Singapore could learn from the families that run much of Las Vegas.

August 22, 2005 @ 7:48 am | Comment

Hey Martyn,

If you have a pointer to the text of the CCP’s Patriotic Education, please pass it to me. I am curious about what’s inside it, particularly on the relationship between China and Japan if there is one such section.

August 22, 2005 @ 11:09 am | Comment

Hello everybody.
May I point your attention to a new religion which has some interesting new insights in the big problems of todays world like global warming. Here an exerpt of an open letter of it’s founder to the Kansas school board:

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD

I am writing you with much concern after having read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him. …

… You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse relationship between pirates and global temperature.

The whole letter you can find here: http://www.venganza.org/

On wiki you can find more about it:
http://tinyurl.com/8vp3f

August 23, 2005 @ 7:54 am | Comment

Martyn suggested to me that blogspot is not the site to go to if you want Chinese readers to have access to your blog. Any suggestions for a version that is accessible (and is still, ahem…free?).

Cheers.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:19 am | Comment

Here’s 100+ blog hosting services. Blog-City has just been blocked in the motherland as well so don’t go there mate.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:31 am | Comment

thanks, Martyn!

August 23, 2005 @ 11:32 am | Comment

I’m having trouble logging into my blog at the moment but interesting article in the Sydney Morning Herald (free sub req’d):

http://tinyurl.com/dl9zd

A Chinese government department has warned that growing income gaps could produce a dangerous level of instability within five years…the highlighting of unrest could also be propaganda in an internal Communist Party battle ahead of a plenum meeting of the party’s central committee next month…

Projecting the Jiang legacy as one preoccupied with supporting business entrepreneurs and cosying up with the newly rich, and contrasting this with Mr Hu’s concern for more equality, has been a strategy in the power struggle.

It goes on to discuss Hu’s attempts to throw out remaining Jaing/Shanghai camp supporters and complete his takeover of the CCP.

So much for Hu the reformer.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:45 am | Comment

ZB, TPD guest blogger Lisa is also loyal to her Blogspot site Paper Tiger. However she created a mirror site on Blog-City for us China residents. Unfortunately, Blog-City was blocked by the Nanny last week, worst luck.

August 23, 2005 @ 11:49 am | Comment

yes, I’m still trying to figure out what to do about that. No time right now though!

August 23, 2005 @ 1:11 pm | Comment

I actually glanced at that speech. For me the highlight was:

“the following are the fundamental causes for the defeat of Germany and Japan:…when the time came for them to be ruthless, they turned out to be too soft, therefore leaving troubles that resurfaced later on.”
Those Nazi fascists were just a bunch of softies compared to the tremendous naughtiness of the CCP!

August 23, 2005 @ 4:37 pm | Comment

a debate at the teahouse between a japanese and a british living in japan, see how a japan apologist defend their “business” in WWII:

http://tinyurl.com/a4j9w

August 23, 2005 @ 5:44 pm | Comment

Thanks indeed Martyn. I’ve been searching for a different site to mirror The Horse’s Mouth on because I’m not really all that fond of Xanga. As one person put it, it’s more of a shelter for lost teenagers.

(or banned china bloggers in my case)

August 23, 2005 @ 10:05 pm | Comment

Viola! The new mirror site for The Horse’s Mouth  can now
be found here.

August 23, 2005 @ 10:22 pm | Comment

Gordon –

I promised the skinny on the pressing topic of hamburger buns …

They are indeed the real article, not even sweetened for Shanghainese palates (as so much bread is here). They are manufactured by Mankattan (Chinese brand names!), a major Shanghai bread producer. I don’t know if their products are available elsewhere. Like I said, I found them at Carrefour.

Hopefully your neighbors soon need no longer fear being “bunned”. 🙂

August 23, 2005 @ 10:23 pm | Comment

Gordon, I posted the link to the 100+ blog-hosting sites over at the last open thread for you mate. Anyway, glad you’ve seen it and sorted out a mirror site.

August 24, 2005 @ 12:59 am | Comment

Munu is down. http://munuemergency.blogspot.com/. SimonWorld is not accessible for the time being.

August 24, 2005 @ 2:01 am | Comment

I couldn’t access Simonworld last night either but just assumed that it was my dodgy Guangzhou Internet connection playing up again. I was shocked to hear that no one can access the site. I wonder what’s wrong? Is .mu.nu itself down?

August 24, 2005 @ 2:58 am | Comment

Easily the best post of the day is Imagethief’s Remain Calm, Oil’s Well. It links to a couple of great articles as well. Essential reading.

August 24, 2005 @ 3:15 am | Comment

Thanks, Martyn. You’re *my* Instapundit. (Joke)You should stop slumming on this second rate blog and get your own!(/joke)

I’ve also not been able to get to virtualbrowser.com all day, which has kinda been worrying me. Is it just me?

August 24, 2005 @ 3:28 am | Comment

Will, I can only reach virtualbrowser.com by doing the proxy shuffle.

August 24, 2005 @ 3:32 am | Comment

A proxy to open a proxy? That’s just more than I can take. I need an aspirin. Anyone with other good proxy recommendations? (If you don’t want to free-and-clear them, you can e-mail me via

http://tinyurl.com/db7gr )

August 24, 2005 @ 3:36 am | Comment

Will, I just sent you the list to a site that lists dozens of proxies that I use. Gordon uses the same site and Lisa is the one who sent the link to me in the first place. It’s a great site which fills all of my proxy needs…..

August 24, 2005 @ 3:55 am | Comment

Will, Martyn, didn’t you get the email I sent out regarding the method I’m currently using?

No need for proxy jumping anymore.

August 24, 2005 @ 4:43 am | Comment

Gordon, I did but I thought that was just for China-residing blog-owners to update their blocked sites. You mean if I followed your instructions I wouldn’t ever have to use a proxy again?

August 24, 2005 @ 4:48 am | Comment

Martyn, cheers for that.

Gordon: Yeah I did, and I’m planning to install it on my computer at home. But I can’t install it on my work computer. Gotta be old-fashioned for that. Ahem, not that I waste valuable company time reading blogs mind you. It’s, er, just in case.

August 24, 2005 @ 5:00 am | Comment

Yep, my entire hosting server is down at the moment. Expecting it to come back up in the next 6 hours or so, and here’s hoping nothing was lost. Can’t blame the Nanny for this one.

And remember kids, back up every day.

August 24, 2005 @ 6:43 am | Comment

madge spam

August 24, 2005 @ 7:01 am | Comment

Yeah Martyn, you got it. It’s the only “proxy” you should ever need again.

August 24, 2005 @ 7:59 am | Comment

Simonworld is back up and running.

August 24, 2005 @ 12:52 pm | Comment

Chinese defector Chen Yonglin claims a hit squad has been sent from China to assassinate him.

Mr Chen has told ABC TV he was tipped off by a senior Chinese official that assassins had entered Australia on business visas.

“I received a message from one of my closest friends in China working in the ministry of foreign affairs saying that the government has sent one month ago … a three-member team to conduct an operation called decapitation strike,” he said.

“Because they want to shut me up and … they want to send a warning example to others who want to defect.”

August 24, 2005 @ 1:27 pm | Comment

If I had to place money/gamble on the validity of that Chen Yonglin/assassination squad story, then I’d put every single penny I had that this is another one of his lies.

For two reasons:

Firstly, Mr. Chen has had months to tell the Australian authorities, and more recently, the US authorites, all the supposedly “top secret” work that he carried out in his position at China’s Australian Embassy. Therefore, the damage has already been done. What’s the point of silencing him now?

Secondly, if anything “unfortunate” happened to Mr. Chen and he was suddenly murdered, the entire world would immediately blame China. China has already received a mountain of bad publicity because of Mr. Chen’s defection, the last thing it needs is to add “cold-blooded murder by assassination squad” to the already long-list of dubious allegations.

I’m 100% sure that this another one of Chen Yongjin’s lies. As he’s already admitted to lying in the past, this is just another feeble attempt to try and secure his precious Australian, possibly American visa/citizenship.

August 24, 2005 @ 1:57 pm | Comment

Time for a new open thread…please migrate up top!

August 24, 2005 @ 4:19 pm | Comment