I was sent this book to review months ago and I got so caught up in work I put it aside and all but forgot about it. Then one day last week I needed to find a restaurant fast and I remembered I had a new book on Beijing buried in my bookcase. After a little excavation I dug it out and started thumbing through it. I soon realized this isn’t your everyday tourist guidebook, the kind that lists only restaurants that tourist buses flock to or that pushes you toward annoying tourist traps. It’s not really a guidebook, but more of a survival manual for living in Beijing. And for uncovering all that Beijing has to offer.

The best think about this book is that it truly lives up to its title: its chapters are written by Beijing’s best and brightest like Jeremy Goldkorn and Kaiser Kuo – people who not only know Beijing like the proverbial back of their hand, but who actually tell you stuff that is useful, stuff that you simply won’t find in your everyday guidebook or survival manual. Great restaurant reviews, descriptions of the best museums and art galleries and musical events in town, and tips for every conceivable activity, from starting a business to getting a driver’s license to finding a language school. And it’s told with context and insight, not just laundry lists and one-line descriptions.

I try to avoid superlatives, but this 700-page encyclopedia is the best city guide that I’ve ever seen. Beijing is so huge and complicated, so hard to navigate, and when you first get here (and even after) so many of the great things going on here are hard to find if you don’t have an insider telling you where to go. This book unlocks it all, giving you the keys to the kingdom. It’s great. I just wish I’d opened it up earlier.

It’s a story that is going to receive a lot of coverage (already has actually) but I think the best piece so far is by John Kennedy at Global Voices Online. John’s post captures both the tragedy and the complexity of Hu Jia’s case and includes a number of useful references and important links. Here is a too brief excerpt:

Playing Captain Kangaroo may work in Zhongnanhai, but the reality that Hu and Zeng and their supporters have chosen to live in goes more like a Kanye West song. When Hu was first kidnapped around this time two years ago, Zeng Jinyan started a blog on which she documented the bureaucratic games she saw being played as she ran around Beijing trying unsuccessfully to find out what had happened to her husband, who was dropped off miles from home and with no notice over a month later.

When Zeng herself soon became subject to constant surveillance, she slammed on the brakes and started getting in their face.

Placing Hu under ongoing house arrest in 2006 effectively put an end to the environmental protection and AIDS awareness work for which he had already become quite well-known, and so trapped at home with little more than an internet connection, he not only created a whole new approach to activism, which some are calling Tiananmen 2.0, he switched gears to become a social worker of sorts, enabled by technology to keep constant track of a whole range of cases, and where possible, enabling others [zh] to do the same.

In 2007, Zeng Jinyan was chosen by TIME Magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.

This will no doubt go down as a landmark moment in Chinese history, but to this day anyone looking to China’s largest search engine for more information needs to be prepared for disappointment. In the China of today, though, someone like Hu Jia just doesn’t quietly disappear, and when state agents abducted him again last December, near-blind family friend Zheng Mingfang went straight to the streets and did what she could, walking up to strangers and explaining Hu’s situation, collecting signatures for a petition calling for his release. Early last month, however, Zheng too was arrested.

Words fail.

That is the actual title of this Xinhua article, which borders on parody. I can just see some party hack with a checklist of key messages ticking them off one by one. Only one item is missing from his checklist, however, and that is newsworthiness. Since when does someone being happy qualify as news? Then again, the article’s subject probably exists only in the imagination of a low-payed copywriter. The whole thing:

Happy life of a Tibetan man

LHASA, April 2 (Xinhua) — Living in a village of Xietongmen County in Tibet, Dolag looks forward to every weekend when his daughter comes home from the boarding school in town.

His nine-year-old daughter enjoys free education, room and meals at the primary school, a policy the central government has offered to resident students from the region’s agricultural and pasturing areas in the stage of compulsory education. The policy was initiated in 1985, earlier than many parts of the country. The sponsoring fund per head has risen to the present1,450 yuan from 353 yuan 23 years before.

“The government not only provides free education for my daughter, it also helps us to build new houses,” said the plump middle-aged man. Dolag, whose life revolves around a pasture in northern Tibet, enjoys watching his daughter coming back home from school in a merry mood. For him, it is a return to a happy life.

The 41-year-old man was heartbroken when his two other children were killed by floods while herding sheep in 2004. But he still has a daughter.

Unlike most parts of the country, Tibetans in rural and pasturing areas enjoy special policies that put no limit on the number of births the couples can have.

Dolag has gradually stepped out of the shadow. Last year, he spent more than 100,000 yuan (about 14,000 US dollars) to renovate his house, backed by nearly 20,000 yuan of subsidy from the local government.

Tibet started an unprecedented house renovation program for the farmers and herdsmen in 2006, which has helped 570,000 Tibetans move into new houses.

The government has allocated more than 1.7 billion yuan as subsidies in the program.

Zhoinlag, Dolag’s 66-year-old mother, now lives with her other relatives in Shigatse, where the famous Tashilhunpo Monastery (meaning “heap of glory”) is located.

Her daily life is occupied with turning the prayer wheels, a special ritual of reading the mantras for Tibetans, and paying visits to the temple.

“I wish I could take my mother to other temples and monasteries in Tibet,” said Dolag, who plans to buy a car for the purpose. His mother’s ultimate wish is nothing material – she only hopes that all her children are healthy.

Next year, Zhoinlag will be 67, the average lifespan of today’s Tibetan farmers and herdsmen. The lifespan was only 35.5 years half a century ago.

Dolag is confident that his mother will live a long life because of the better living conditions and medical care.

Nearly 98 percent of the 2.8 million people in Tibet were covered by basic medical insurance, the local health authority said in October last year. Starting from 2007, the poverty-stricken people can receive a maximum of 30,000 yuan in medical aid.

Dolag has two brothers, who are both civil servants. One of them graduated from a teachers’ school while the other from a university.

According to statistics of the regional Bureau of Statistics, the per capita annual income of Tibet farmers and herdsmen has kept a two-digit growth for five consecutive years, reaching 2,788yuan in 2007.

To help farmers and herdsmen in difficulty, the regional government established a system in 2007 to ensure these people enjoy a minimum standard of living, benefiting farmers and herdsman with annual income below 800 yuan.

If I didn’t know better, I’d think it was a press release manufactured by the government to make itself look good.

Can anyone reading this actually not see through it instantly from the headline alone?”

[Update: For an interesting and very different article about Tibet, go here now. And no, I don’t agree with every word, but it sure made me think. A couple of sentences also made me wince.]

Interesting opinion piece by Huang Wenxue and translated by Heather Saul at China Elections and Governance run by the Carter Center.

Huang argues:

The media reported that “the election of Taiwan regional leadership was peaceful and orderly.” This means that direct democratic and popular election of government leadership has already taken place in Taiwan, a region with a population of more than twenty million. This is a resounding slap in the face for those who say “China is ill suited for direct democratic elections,” and that “China does not have the proper conditions for direct democratic elections.” Of course, what works in one region cannot be applied universally to all parts of China. However, what we have is a case of successful Chinese direct democratic elections. In this context, the continual promulgation of the idea that “direct democratic elections are unsuitable for China” not only belittles China, but also implies that Taiwan is not a part of China. As of now, when Mainland China will start allowing the direct election of township leaders is not the point. What is presently important is that Chinese leaders admit that Taiwan, as a part of China, is a successful case of direct elections and that other regions in China may have similar conditions of suitability for this kind of democracy.

For as much as mainlanders like to occasionally snicker at the boisterous and raucous world of Taiwanese politics, the system is maturing rapidly. I strongly suggest reading the essay in its entirety. The original Chinese-language text can also be found here.

H/T Danwei.

Because that’s the best I can do for now.

Raj

Zimbabwe once again goes to the polls to elect a new president – the BBC reports.

Polling stations have closed in Zimbabwe, ending voting in elections that will decide whether President Robert Mugabe wins a sixth term. His challengers are Morgan Tsvangirai of the MDC party and ex-finance minister and independent Simba Makoni.

Queues formed early, but voting died down later in the day. Some voters complained of irregularities. The MDC feared the poll would be rigged but Mr Mugabe said as he cast his vote in Harare: “We don’t rig elections.”

No, the Zanu-PF doesn’t rig elections – it just stuffs the electoral roll with the names of dead people and prints 50% more ballot papers than there are voters (nothing suspicious with that, is there?).

Let’s be honest. As the Economist says, if the election was free and fair Mugabe would have no real prospect of success. And even with his ability to manipulate the electoral commission, use Police to intimidate voters, etc, Zimbabwe’s economic crisis and the resulting unpopularity makes it difficult for him to claim a victory in the first round. So the question is, will there be enough pressure on him to bow out when inevitably he loses after a second vote, instead of simply declaring himself the winner?

Once again, it may fall to SADC (Southern African Development Community) to take Mugabe to task. For too long it has tolerated his barbaric behaviour simply because he used to be an independence fighter and is still “popular”. Africa often complains that the rest of the world does not take it seriously. Well how can it take Africa seriously if such obvious electoral fraud as has happened in the past is swept under the carpet and elections are declared “free & fair”? SADC members generally opposed Zimbabwe’s suspension from the Commonwealth of Nations, even though the motion was still carried by the majority (most of whom can hardly be described as members of the “white man’s conspiracy”).

It would be wrong to write off a whole continent due to the actions of one region, but it is true that the inaction of Zimbabwe’s neighbours (especially South Africa) over Mugabe’s reign of terror has damaged African states’ hopes of being treated like serious international players rather than aid-reliant basket-cases.

If Mugabe tries to steal the election again, as he almost certainly will, the rest of Africa must take the opportunity to pressure the old man’s reluctant neighbours into condemning the vote and insist that the second round really is free and fair. If it refuses out of historical prejudice and racism, then Africa’s diplomatic underperformance will continue for years to come.

I have an essay over at The China Beat (mainland link) on foreign media coverage of the unrest in Lhasa and other areas of Western China. It’s a long piece, but then it’s a complicated subject, and I’d be interested in the thoughts and comments of our TPD community.

I won’t be posting much this week.

Raj

Ma Ying-jeou has won the Taiwanese presidency by a significant margin. Congratulations to the victor and commiserations to the loser.

I won’t focus on what lies ahead for Taiwan in terms of domestic policy because no one can really predict what will happen – it will be a case of very certain people having enough differing views that someone will be correct. Personally I wouldn’t bet my life on any one thing happening.

I will briefly mention the losing DPP, as it now needs to rebuild and focus more on domestic bread-and-butter issues that people care about. Harping on about UN membership or a candidate’s US green card will not win an election. What the party needs is a partial purge of the traditionalists in the leadership, who have focused too much on Taiwan’s diplomatic future. Some good recommendations can be found on one of the leading political Taiwan blogs out there, though I don’t think the DPP should be too anti-China anywhere unless relations get worse or do not improve much. A weak opposition is bad for any country, so I hope that the DPP can rebuild and challenge the KMT at future elections, rather than have a return to one-party politics and the increase of corruption that would follow.

The main comment I have to make is relations with China. Ma promised, like his competitor, to improve direct links and negotiate with China – though he has said he will not meet with Hu Jintao or discuss unification. There will be a honeymoon period with China, much like the Taiwanese electorate, in which everyone thinks things can only get better. However, I do wonder whether this will be temporary. Although there is concern amongst some people in Taiwan that Ma will “sell out”, I don’t think that he will – unless one sees things very narrowly through utter and official independence for the island. He isn’t in favour of that, but he does want to preserve the island’s de-facto independence simply because neither he nor the KMT trusts the CCP. Some grand promises were made for Hong Kong’s autonomy, yet after over a decade of unification Beijing is still dragging its feet over full democracy for the territory – recent suggested timescales for reform are not certain, nor is there a fixed method for introducing them.

After a while I believe that Beijing may well get frustrated with Ma for not discussing deeper political change. It will also not appreciate continued arms purchases which will be approved more readily by the KMT-controlled legislative now that it also controls the presidency. If China continues the aggressive poaching of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies and bullying on the international stage, such as denying Taiwan direct access to the WHO without its permission, it will have no ability to blame everything on Taiwan as the most China-friendly candidate has won the election. This may help Taiwan’s standing in the international community if it is still bullied, though Ma may find he simply becomes demonised by China like many other political leaders and other countries go along with that because it’s easier.

I would be impressed if Ma can win significant diplomatic concessions from China, as at the moment Beijing is still in denial that its approach to Taiwan is the problem (just as is the case with its view on Tibet). The failure of the two UN referenda will not help his negotiating position, as China will see this as a reason not to give up much. However, Ma will have to still push for better international rights if he wants a second term at the next election – “giving in” to Chinese pressure won’t endear him to the electorate. China and Taiwan will only be able to make a long-term solution when China realises it needs to give Taiwan international space and respect its de-facto independence, even if it doesn’t recognise formal independence. Even if “unification” can occur, it will be in name-only with nothing changing in terms of actual control over the island. Taiwan will demand that China not block its attempts to make free-trade pacts with other nations and may even insist on membership of certain international bodies like the WHO and UN.

Beijing needs to tone down the rampant nationalism that permeates Chinese society and find ways to get Taiwan to trust it. The constant Chinese arms build-up will not force Taiwan to unify, and insistence on using the one country, two system method for the future will not work – Ma has rejected that. A new way of dealing with Taiwan is required, otherwise the chance for heading off formal independence will disappear – much as China’s ability to resolve the Tibetan problem without violence is slipping away.

Raj

Tibet: the jealousy, rage and bitterness of a new generation that fuelled deadly riots

An insightful article that has grave warnings for the future.

Tibetans in communities across the Himalayan plateau and in surrounding provinces who have risen up this week against Chinese rule appear mainly to be young men and women in their teens or twenties. They are from a generation too young to remember either a 1959 uprising against Chinese rule in which tens of thousands were killed or the destruction wreaked by Red Guards – both Chinese and Tibetan – during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

Their anger has been directed as much against the traditional symbols of Chinese power as against ordinary Chinese, hinting at a deepening resentment, even a hatred, that follows ethnic lines.

China repeatedly tells itself that everything will be fine in Tibet once the Dalai Lama dies and that it is older Tibetans who are the “troublemakers”. But, if anything, it is the older generation that try to keep things calm. Younger Tibetans are the angry ones who will resort to violence. They can’t be bought off with money because, at least at the moment, Chinese immigrants are the ones taking most of the opportunities. It’s too late to try to teach them Mandarin.

But there are those who feel left out. Young Tibetans who speak poor Mandarin – the official language of China and crucial to finding a job. Others are accustomed to a more rural way of life and their education, like others in China’s vast countryside, leaves them ill-equipped for the rough and tumble of a market economy.

The comparison between Tibetans and rural-dwelling Chinese is an interesting one. Note the sympathy the latter often gets from other Chinese due to official corruption and lack of opportunities, whereas the former get none. For a nation that loves to claim it lives in harmony with its minorities, I think there is an element of racism in that Tibetans are automatically blamed for any problems by Chinese.

So what is China going to do when these angry young youths become the majority? Clearly Tibetans are not trusted by the Chinese, despite what they may like to think.

Many Tibetans chafe under the restrictions imposed two years ago by the regional party boss that ban Tibetan Government servants from religious activities. Others are keenly aware that scarcely a single Chinese official in the regional government can speak Tibetan. That ethnocentric Han approach only intensifies the ethnic divide and cultural misunderstandings. No ethnic Tibetan has ever held the job of Communist Party boss – a potent signal of Beijing’s lack of trust in this deeply Buddhist people who still revere the Dalai Lama.

Clearly China needs to take the opportunity to deal with the Dalai Lama as the only Tibetan leader that still holds a large degree of respect across the region, whilst older and wiser generations are the senior community leaders in Tibet. Quisling leaders are complete jokes and only make matters worse. If China delays the new generation that does not heed the Lama’s calls for peace will take control. Then China would have to offer a lot more for a peaceful solution. Sadly I think that, as usual, China will stick its head into the sand and only pull it out when the opportunity to negotiate through the Dalai Lama has gone.

Update – 24th March

The Times reports that at least two Tibetans have been shot by Chinese forces, with a dozen or more wounded while taking part in a peaceful protest.

Hundreds of monks, nuns and local Tibetans who tried to march on a local government office in western China to demand the return of the Dalai Lama have been turned back by paramilitary police who opened fire to disperse the crowd.

Local residents of Luhuo said two people – a monk and a farmer – appeared to have been shot dead and about a dozen were wounded in the latest violence to rock Tibetan areas of China.

China spends tens of US$ billions more every year on the Chinese military, and yet for some reason the security forces can only deal with protests by gunning people down. Are promotions handed out on the basis of how ruthlessly people deal with unarmed civilians?

Broken bones amongst a few people = a $1,000 bonus?
Use of firearms = promotion to the next grade?
People dead/wounded = a villa in the nearest tourist resort?
A dozen + casualties = fast-track to the Politburo?