(Evil Step-) Mother

Evil Step-Mother,

The world took pity on you when it saw how backward you were, and tried to help you in every way it could;
The world was somewhat nervous when you focused your newfound financial power on building the worlds largest military, complete with Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM’s) and a military space program;
The world condemned you when you butched tens of millions of your own people, but was willing to forgive you for invading just about every neighboring country and teaching lies as history;
The free citizens of the world refused to boycott the Olympics, despite the fact that you boycotted more Olympics than any other nation in history;

Let me tell you, Evil Step-Mother, as a free man brought up outside China:
They fear you, Evil Step-Mother, as your people have no morals;
They fear you, Evil Step-Mother, as your ambition to dominate knows no bounds;
They fear you, Evil Step-Mother, as you take the most callous side in every international dispute;
They fear you, Evil Step-Mother, as your generals have stated they WANT a nuclear war with the West;
And finally, for the period Qin Dynasty to the date of your inevitable demise, your people have shown their blinkered, xenophobic hatred of all things foreign, contrasting greatly with the civilisation seen in the West.

Evil Step-Mother, words of praise and encouragement have come all too often from the West, most of whose people are willing to let bygones be bygones, and who have tried so very hard, for so very long, to drag you into enlightenment, despite yourself and despite your hostile attitude towards them in return.

Evil Step-Mother, I’m fucking glad I’m not one of the poor bastards who was born in your realm, but that said, I’m doing what I can to give you yet another chance. Not that you’ll take it, but that’s what we civilised people do.

I hope it doesn’t all end in tears.

MyLaowai.

Verbatim

I received this from a reader the other day. It’s short and to the point, and frankly I couldn’t write it any better. Read this:

Now then,

I was sat in the Big Bamboo the other day watching Sweden play Spain in Euro 200b on an overseas Chinese sports channel called Ben Sports. Everything was fine until the breaks when suddenly this message began to repeat on the screen (I didn’t get a photo):

Mother,
The world laughed at you for being backward;
The world was full of envy and anxiety when you opened up and progressed into a financial powerhouse;
The world condemned you when you put law and order into the upheaval and lawlessness created by followers of a self proclaimed Robin Hood in t¡bet but failed to applaud when you used your influence to save the lives of Burmese monks;
The world threatened to boycott and disrupt the August Olympics on ground of your violations of human rights standards set by the West who by apartheid policies and discrimination of coloured people blatantly violated for ages the same standards set.
Let me tell you Mother as a dragon seed brought up outside China;
They fear you Mother as you out compete them;
They fear you Mother as you are set to replace them at the healm of world order faster than they can accept;
They fear you Mother as you refused to take sides in every international dispute as you believe that to each his own and from each his best;
They fear you Mother as you have by hardwork hastened the failure and decadence of self assumed western supremecy system;
And finally for the period 12th May to eternity, you have shown the world the tenderness, love and care of the best guardian government and leaders the Chinese People can ever have contrasting greatly with the aftermath of the Florida and Burmese cyclone.
Mother, words of praises and admiration will never come from the West as they have painted you falsely as a hardcore monster with no feelings for your own for too long and the Western World is watching with total disbelief on CNN, BBC, Fox Media, live, the search, rescue, care and rebuilding operations to restore life and normalcy into the millions of displaced victims led by brothers Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao demonstrating love care and simplicity with no political agenda whatsoever.
Mother, we whether in or out of the Great Wall are lucky and proud to be descendants of the ever Supreme Dragon.

Amen
Mr. Ben Chairman/CEO Bensports Satellite TV May 2008

People were pretty pissed off to have their football match interrupted with this kind of racist nonsense, and the content pretty much makes clear what the Chinese think behind all their nice Olympic Harmony lies. The fact that it’s printed in English means assumedly it is directed against westerners.

Others write about it here:

www.shanghairiot.blogspot.com

http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/MDForum-viewtopic-t-77279.phtml

I think you should definitely write something about this.

Hope you’re well.

My Wet Pussy Award - May 2008

It’s a bit of a different story this month, and it took me a while to figure out how I was going to tell it. My apologies for being a couple of days late.

I have a friend who’s just gotten out of a Chinese Detention Centre. He was inside for a month, and what he went through was fairly horrific. He’s certainly not the man he was before he went in. Before I tell you a bit more of his story, however, I’d like to talk briefly about a few of the other foreigners that were in there at the same time.

There’s the guy, for instance, who made the mistake of being in a bar at the same time that a bar fight broke out between two groups of Chinese. He wasn’t involved in any way at all, but he was the one the Police picked up because he was the only customer who wasn’t a local. He was, in fact, a sailor on a container ship that had docked up the river, and this was his first visit to China. He spent every night crying and praying. He only got out when the Captain of his ship payed an enormous bribe to the prison guards.

Or the guy from South East Asia, who was picked up in a random sweep in the far west (Xinjiang to the locals, East Turkestan to the rest of the world). His crime was ‘looking like a separatist’. The local Police there, unwilling to admit they had picked up a foreigner by mistake, shipped him off to distant Shanghai. He’s been in for months, and has no prospect of getting out any time soon.

Then there’s the foreign investor whose Joint Venture partner, a corrupt member of the Shanghai Government, decided he wanted the whole operation for himself, and had this poor blighter arrested and put away.

Worst of all, the guy who has been inside for a year and a half. His crime? In the words of the guard who boasted to my friend: “He’s black, and we don’t like black people in China. We don’t want to let him out”.

None of these people - none of them - have ever been charged with any crime. None of them has, to the best of my knowledge, been allowed to see a lawyer. Their consulates don’t know they are in there. Their families haven’t heard from them. They have simply disappeared.

Which brings me to my friend.

He was in a bar with his colleagues after work early one evening, when a very large, very drunk American came over and accused his boss of stealing his drink. He was very obviously looking to start a fight. The target of his aggression offered to buy him another drink to replace the one he had lost, and the American went away after roundly abusing the entire group. Half an hour later he was back, and made to attack my friend. My friend threw up his arm to protect his face, and the glass he was holding nicked the American (but not badly, just enough to draw a little blood). After the American was restrained, my friend left quickly so as to avoid further incident, but apparently the American was able to find out where he worked and what his name was.

Several days later, my friend got an email from this American, which said “I’m gonna fuck you up”. That night, when he arrived home, the Police had set a trap for him, and whisked him away to the Detention Centre.

My friend was lucky - his girlfriend knew what happened to him. Why lucky? Because when the girlfriend went to the consulate, and the consulate went to the Police asking why they hadn’t filed the mandatory report with them, the Police denied any knowledge of the incident. They continued to deny knowing the whereabouts of my friend for a week, and when they finally admitted to knowing where he was, it took another week before they allowed Consular officials to see him, in clear violation of several international agreements. My friend was warned at this time not to say anything except that he was being treated well.

He was not being treated well, not by a long shot.

He was being subjected to intense political re-education, all day every day. No exercise, bright lights all the time, emotional abuse, you name it. He was placed in a small cell with half a dozen Chinese murderers who had also been subjected to the same political re-education, and who as a result harboured a particular hatred towards all foreigners. He ate stale rice and drank dirty water for a month. He slept on the floor. No showers, and one shave per week, with a blunt and bloodied razor that was used for the entire prison population (he refused to shave). Following the events in Sichuan recently, the guards came around and demanded that all prisoners sign a document ‘donating’ their money to the guards, for an ‘Earthquake Appeal’, and when my friend refused, the guards saw to it that all the other prisoners knew it.

My friend was not treated well. Not by a long shot.

He was released after his family agreed to pay the American 350,000 RMB (although he had originally demanded 1,000,000). That’s a lot of money.

And what about this mysterious American, the one who arranged for him to be there? Well, it turns out that this particular Yank has rather a history of doing this sort of thing to people. His modus operandi is to start fights with other foreigners, younger than himself and smaller in build, and then have them arrested. He either pays the Police a percentage or a set price, it isn’t clear which. And then he pockets the money and moves on to the next victim. A regular, old-fashioned, extortion racket. Just like in the old days.

This bastard lives in Shanghai, and has in fact been here for quite a few years. He is involved in real estate, and has a lot of local connections to help him do his dirty work. I know who this person is, I know what he looks like, I know where he works and where he lives, and I know what I’d like to see happen to him. My friend has asked that I don’t publish any of that, and I intend to repect his wishes. But I will also be hitting my knees on the floor every night, praying that this bastard gets his just desserts.

This Wet Pussy Award is for him.

Un-named Yank Bastard, Wet Pussy Award winner.

And where now are the righteous Chinese patriots, the ones who cry foul whenever China’s human right’s record is questioned? I can only presume they are okay with their own Police and Party Officials colluding with this American, to extort money out of other foreigners. But hey, feel free to prove me wrong - until you do, I’ll go right on believing that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

And while I’m quoting others, here’s another one for you:

“Why is that camera off? You don’t know what you’re doing here, but maybe I know what I’m doing here. These people [the State] are risking their lives for us? I want to see what they’re going through, even if they don’t want us to. And I want other people to see it. What do you think they’re doing out there? Protecting and defending secrecy? That’s the world of Mao, the world of Stalin, the world of secret police, of secret trials, of secret deaths! You force the press into the cold, and all you will get is lies and innuendo, and nothing - nothing! - is worse for a free society than a press that is in service to the Military and the Politicians. Nothing! You turn that camera off when I tell you to turn it off! You think I give a damn what you think about me? You serve the People? So do I.”

My Wet Pussy Award - April 2008

It wasn’t enough for me this month to merely name some hopeless schmuk as a Wet Pussy, just because he had sided with the butchers in Beijing. Oh no, I wanted more. I wanted a bigger fish to fry, and by the Lords of Kobol I got it.

Now, to be perfectly Francis with you, I’ve always kind of liked the Kiwi’s. They play good rugby, drink good beer and plenty of it, can usually manage a laugh at themselves, and have a healthy disrespect of authority. I like that. I’ve also been to New Zealand, and it’s a very nice place indeed. Good huntin’ and fishin’ for those of us who’re into that sort of thing, amazing rivers and lakes and ocean and forest and snow, and all that good Nature stuff. And Hobbits, everybody likes Hobbits.

The thing is, I never thought I’d live to see the day when I’d side with the French over the New Zealanders. The French do have somewhat of a, er, shall we say reputation for, er, shall we say not always making the bravest or most moral decisions. I’m not saying that I hold that opinion myself, you understand, but it’s a reputation that precedes any French citizen, fairly or otherwise. And it’s a reputation that is diametrically different from that which the Kiwi’s possess. So you can imagine my shock and horror when the French honored His Holiness the Dalai Lama with the keys to the city (Paris), and the Kiwi’s honored Hu Jintao (a.k.a. the Butcher of Lhasa) with a Free Trade Agreement.

What the fuck were those idiots thinking? Why not simply give Poland to Hitler’s descendants? Same deal.

So, to my everlasting sadness, I was ready to award April’s Wet Pussy Award to New Zealand, when out of the blue, Australian politician and all-round fucktard Kim Beasley gives an interview on Chinese TV and, when asked about Australia’s position vis-a-vis Tibet, says: “Well, let’s get back to first principles. Everyone in the world knows that Tibet and Taiwan are now and have always been part of China.”

Mister Beasley, are you out of your tiny retarded fucking mind? Who the hell are you to speak for everybody in the world? You can’t even speak for the people of your own country, ever since your own party kicked you out of the hot seat. When I hear knuckleheads like you speaking, it reminds me of the joke about the Eighth Wonder of the World being an Australian in a bar… with his mouth shut.

Mister Beasley, how dare you sell out the tens of millions of poor sods in Taiwan and Tibet, who look to your country with hope? How dare you hand the murdering bastards in Beijing such a propaganda coup? Sure, it was a question that was hard to answer, so why answer it at all? You’re a politician! You’ve spent years not answering questions, distorting facts, telling lies - surely you could have kept yer trap shut just this once? What the Hell were you thinking? Mister Beasley, pray you never run into me in a bar, unless you want to be picking up your teeth with broken fingers, then walking to the dentist’s on broken legs.

Mister Beasley, it is my greatest pleasure to be able to sling this Wet Pussy Award at you. I hope you go and choke on it.

Kim Beasley, Wet Pussy Award winner and right bastard.

My Wet Pussy Award - March 2008

Well, they all came crawling out of the woodwork this month, didn’t they? Every sympathisers dream came true this month, when the Red Army renewed their campaign to grind the people of Tibet into the dust, and eradicate their culture forever. Of course, it’s merely a continuation of what they’ve been doing since 1950, and it isn’t just the Tibetans they’ve been doing it to either, as the Uighur and Mongolian peoples can attest.

It wasn’t easy finding a Wet Pussy for March ‘08, due to the sheer volume of brown-nosed creeps out there who insisted that the rest of the world should “take a step back” and “respect China’s internal affairs”. Bullshit, of course, and the sort of thing that gets you crossed off my Christmas Card list.

In the final analysis, though, this month’s winner won on the basis of something not immediately connected with the ongoing brutality in Tibet (and East Turkestan and Inner Mongolia). He won it mainly because he came out of the sympathiser closet well before the recent events in Tibet.

Ian Morrison is a “senior copy editor with ChinaDaily”, which in and of itself is reason enough to hang him from the nearest tree by his dangly bits. The following article was sent to me by a reader in Shanghai, and is reproduced here for your contempt:

Did you read it properly? Note the sentence: “…does democracy exist in China? I would argue that it does. But what someone in Berlin, Baltimore, or Beijing regards as ‘democratic’ may be different.” No shit, Sherlock.

And what about: “…as a proudly independant nation, [China] does not develop ‘models’ for others to copy…” Is that right? Really? Tell that to all the poor sods living in the annexed territories, or in the countries that China unsuccessfully invaded over the last 60 years. It’s a long list of places. Tell that to the Taiwanese or Hong Kongers, for that matter.

This article, incidentally, was printed on the same page as a piece explaining that the world should follow China’s model for development.

And for that fact, alone, Mr Morrison, you win this month’s Wet Pussy Award.

Ian Morrison, Wet Pussy Award Winner, March 2008

China Daily Reports The REAL Truth

The great dictator and mass murderer Mao Zedong once said that the Party could not survive three consecutive days of bad news, and his teachings were taken to heart by the Chinese Communists. It’s rare, in fact, to have even a single day of bad news for those of us living behind the Bamboo Curtain. If everything we read in the papers was even remotely true, this would indeed be a paradise on Earth.

The recent events in and around Greater Tibet have seriously tested the Party’s propaganda chiefs. The obvious and predictable response has been to shut off virtually all access to outside media, actively block foreign television signals, jam foreign radio broadcasts, and go on a major propaganda offensive inside China. Most Han Chinese, having been trained in how to think since being born, are quite willing to believe everything they are told, and comments such as “We should exterminate all Tibetans” are to be heard almost everywhere.

Naturally, in order to counteract any possible bad news, there must be both denials of the truth, and counter-stories showing something good. I present yesterday’s stories for your enlightenment.

The first, largest headline our friends at China Daily had was:

Lhasa riot reports show media bias in West

Chinese netizens, including students studying overseas, have been angered by biased and sometimes dishonest reports about the recent riots in Tibet by some Western media.

Pictures from some media websites, including CNN and BBC, with untrue reports about the riots have been posted on chatrooms, drawing criticism.

“I used to think the Western media were fair. But how could they turn a blind eye to the killing and arson by rioters?” asked a posting at pic.qikoo.com.

[...]

“To tarnish China’s image, the West is doing whatever they can, no mater how mean and vicious,” said one netizen on www.huanqiu.com.

“Is this what they call Western democracy and freedom of speech?” asked another netizen.

Huai Bao, a student studying filmmaking in Vancouver, Canada, said: “I have read some news and online discussions made by those who have never been to Tibet, who have zero knowledge about China and the history of Tibet. These people have no rights to comment on Tibet.”

[...]

Bao said there is a unanimous feeling of anger among his Chinese friends in Vancouver.

“Any news about China has to be negative so that they will believe it - from ‘poisonous toys to poisonous dumplings’. Some foreign media have a particular interest in bashing China over human rights and pollution. They turn a blind eye to all progressive changes.”

And the good news? Check this out:

Oldest Tibetan celebrates 117th birthday

The oldest person in Tibet celebrated her 117th birthday in Lhasa on Sunday.Amai Cering, born in March 16 in 1891, was treated to a celebration of Tibetan entertainment and a birthday cake courtesy of the local government and fellow villagers in Jiarong village, of Linzhou County, Lhasa, on Friday.

[...]

Amai Cering lives on a government pension and donations from local companies. She said she is happy with having meat every day.

She leads a regular life, rising at 8 a.m. and going to bed at 5 p.m.every day, Xiaobai said. She enjoyed sitting in the yard for sunshine and eating four meals a day.

[...]

With economic development and improved medical care in Tibet, the lifespan becomes longer. Linzhou County has four centenarians. The average age in Tibet has risen from 35.5 in 1969 to 67, according to official statistics.

Actually, that part about the increase in life expectancy is probably true - don’t forget that after the Red Army invaded Tibet in 1950, they proceeded to murder half the entire population, whereas these days they tend to murder only a few thousand at a time.

Which brings up a very relevant question:

Now that the Taiwan elections are over and the outcome will not influenced by events in Tibet, and all foreign tourists and journalists have been removed to a safe distance (from whence they cannot observe events in Tibet), how long will it be before the real pogrom starts, do you think?

From Wet Pussies to Black & White Cats

Lost in translation:
a one-edged double-edged sword

A few weeks ago Xinhua’s Chinese-language website ran an article with the headline “US NEWSPAPER: THE OLYMPICS - A MOMENT THAT MAKES CHINA PROUD.” It’s essentially a translation of another article in the Christian Science Monitor from a few days earlier: “THE OLYMPICS IN CHINA: A MOMENT FOR PRIDE - AND WORLD SCRUTINY.” When one newspaper or agency reports on something published elsewhere, it’s quite natural for it to be shortened, modified or added to provided these changes are sourced and not presented as a true representation of the original text. Readers in different countries will often want to know different things and focus on different aspects of a story. But how much of that story can be cut before the meaning is completely lost?The Christian Science Monitor article begins:

The Beijing authorities are obsessed with the 2008 Olympic Games – which don’t begin until August. You cannot turn your head in this city without one of the five “Fuwa” Olympic mascots smiling at you from a billboard, open a newspaper without reading an Olympics-related story, or turn on the television without seeing a proud promotional clip of Olympic venues. But the Games are a double-edged sword, offering China a chance to show off its prowess – and focusing critical attention on its failings, reports staff writer Peter Ford.

This paragraph is largely left intact in the Xinhuanet version, though the phrase “The Beijing authorities are obsessed with…” becomes something more like “Everywhere in Beijing, people are thinking about….” It’s in this paragraph that Xinhua accurately translates the original headline. Here is the rest of the article, along with deletions and changes, in which one edge of the “double-edged sword” seems decidedly lacking in sharpness:

WHAT DOES CHINA GET OUT OF HOSTING THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES?

An unprecedented opportunity to shine in the international spotlight for an intense three weeks. The Chinese government is treating the Games as a symbolic end to 150 years of humiliation by outside powers and a confirmation of its status as a global power to be reckoned with. Immensely proud of their 5,000-year-plus civilization, the Chinese also hope to show the rest of the world another side of their country than its economic miracle.

Successful Games would be a powerful antidote to the sort of negative press China has been suffering for the past nine months or so, which has drawn attention to poor food quality and other product safety regulations. And whether they are successful or not, the Games have already provided a strong boost to Beijing’s economy.

And when the Games are over, officials are desperately hoping (though they won’t say publicly) that China will have sneaked past the United States to top the gold medal tally. In Athens four years ago, Chinese athletes won 32 golds to America’s 35.

The next heading changes from:

HAS THE PROSPECT OF HOSTING THE GAMES WIDENED POLITICAL FREEDOMS IN CHINA OR IMPROVED OTHER ASPECTS OF LIFE?

to:

HAS THE PROSPECT OF HOSTING THE GAMES CHANGED CHINESE POLITICS, OR IMPROVED PEOPLE’S LIVES?

And now the deletions and alterations really begin in earnest. Strike the following four paragraphs from the CSM article:

Far from heralding a relaxation, the 2008 Games have actually led to increased repression, according to international human rights group Amnesty International. Beijing had promised improvements in its human rights record, but the head of Amnesty’s German chapter said in December that she expected to see “an increase in harassment, detentions, and people placed under house arrest ahead of the Games.”

That is because Beijing officials are anxious to present a facade of harmony to the world and its journalists. The government is expected to try even harder than usual to keep anybody who might disturb that image – protesters against religious repression, Tibetan rights activists, or AIDS patients complaining about inadequate government care out of sight.

Foreign journalists have been told they will be free to report anything from China, but local reporters are still subject to strict censorship.

Opponents of the Beijing government will undoubtedly use the Olympics, and the presence of 10,000 foreign media personnel, to try to publicize their causes. The Chinese police will undoubtedly try to stop them. Expect cat-and-mouse games outside the sports venues.

and replace them with:

An international organization says the 2008 Olympics will allow China to present a harmonious side to the whole world and journalists from all countries. It expects the government to try even harder than usual in this respect.

Much better. Unfortunately, though, since everything negative has been removed, readers might wonder why there is a need to begin the next sentence with the word “still” (or “nevertheless”):

Still, Beijing residents are enjoying somewhat cleaner air as authorities struggle strive to reduce pollution ahead of the Games. “That’s a real sign of international criteria interacting with a developing nation and requiring a shift of consciousness,” says Martin Jacques, a London-based writer on Chinese affairs.

The CSM’s next heading is not really appropriate:

WILL THE GAMES BE A SUCCESS?

So:

HOW ARE PREPARATIONS FOR THE GAMES GOING?

The article continues:

On the architectural and civil engineering front, China’s preparations for the 2008 Games have won nothing but praise from the International Olympic Committee: the “bird’s nest” Olympic stadium is spectacular and all construction work is on – or ahead of – schedule.

Good.

But if the authorities are good at the hardware, they are not so good at the software, say longtime residents. There are reasons to wonder how well they will handle visitors and the sorts of problems they will pose. This is not a society where ordinary people are encouraged to spontaneously take the initiative to solve a difficulty, which is what Olympic volunteers normally do at the Games to iron out local wrinkles.

Tourists might also suffer from sticker shock: Some hoteliers are planning to increase their room rates by as much as 1,000 percent during the Games. A spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympic Games Organizing Committee (BOCOG) says customers should haggle to avoid “exorbitant” rates.

Perhaps the most worrisome problem Olympic organizers face is air quality. By taking cars off the roads, closing factories, and halting all construction work, the government hopes to improve Beijing’s notorious pollution. But IOC officials have said they will consider postponing athletic events if the air is too dirty on competition day. To the Chinese, that would represent a considerable loss of face.

HOW WILL CHINA DEAL WITH THREATS OF BOYCOTTS OVER ISSUES SUCH AS DARFUR?

Officially Beijing is ignoring them, except occasionally to dismiss them as inappropriate. But at the same time, “the Chinese government does not want any problems for their Games – they deeply want to avoid it,” as John Lucas, a prominent Olympic historian puts it.

One of the results: Although protesters are keeping the public pressure on Beijing over Darfur, Western diplomats say China has in fact been helpful in pressuring the Sudanese government for the past year or so.

The authorities are confident that outright boycott campaigns will fizzle, and they are probably right. But they do not want China to be a pariah at Games time, which gives pressure groups some leverage. And there is nothing Beijing can do about the novel Olympics symbols that are springing up to highlight the repressive nature of the Chinese government – five rings of barbed wire in an Amnesty poster, five interlocking handcuffs in a campaign by Reporters Without Borders. [Editor’s note: The original version misstated the name of Reporters Without Borders.]

HOW IS THE REST OF THE WORLD VIEWING CHINA’S ROLE AS OLYMPICS HOST?

China’s international detractors and boosters alike are curious about how the Games will turn out in a country where so much of what is happening is unprecedented.

Many in the West are angry that China is being given a chance to burnish its international image without improving its human rights record. “The IOC ought to be using this opportunity to put pressure on the Chinese government … but that hasn’t happened,” complains Robert Evans, a British Labour Party member of the European Parliament.

Especially in the United States, perceptions of China and the Games have been soured by the bad news about Chinathat people are paying attention to because of the Games, such as recent food and toy-safety scandals, environmental disasters, or China’s military buildup.

“It has gradually dawned on people that it is not all about a shiny new China,” says Oded Shenkar, a China specialist at Ohio State University in Columbus.

At the same time, the Olympics are as symbolic to the outside world as they are to Beijing of China’s regained status. However critical foreigners are, Mr. Jacques points out, “China is a rising power, and people don’t want to be left out of the action.”

- Black & White Cat

What’s In The News?

From our good friend over at The Opposite End of China, this compilation showing recent events in Tibet, which has been ruled by China since being annexed in 1951…

And from the Peking Duck, this collection from various news sources:

From the NYT:
Chinese security forces were reportedly surrounding three monasteries outside Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, on Thursday after hundreds of monks took to the streets this week in what are believed to be the largest Tibetan protests against Chinese rule in two decades.

The turmoil in Lhasa occurred at a politically delicate time for China, which is facing increasing criticism over its human rights record as it prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August and is seeking to appear harmonious to the outside world.

Beijing has kept a tight lid on dissent before the Games. But people with grievances against the governing Communist Party have tried to promote their causes when top officials may be wary of cracking down by using force.

Qin Gang, a spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, confirmed Thursday that protests had erupted in Lhasa, but declined to provide details. He described the situation as stable.

Reuters also reports, citing sources who contacted the London-based Campaign for a Free Tibet, of other demonstrations being suppressed in ethnic Tibetan areas in Qinghai and Gansu:

Another rights group said about 400 monks from Lutsang monastery in the northwestern province of Qinghai, known in Tibetan as Amdo, protested on Monday and shouted slogans for their exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to return.

About 100 monks from Myera monastery in the neighboring province of Gansu also protested on Monday, the rights group said, adding that police were investigating who was involved.

A source with knowledge of the protests quoted monks and witnesses as saying the sound of gunfire was heard outside the walls of monasteries. But no casualties have been reported.

The Christian Science Monitor has a reporter on the ground:
On most nights, Barkhor Square is full of ancient-looking pilgrims on a Buddhist kora around Jokhand temple, a 1,400-year old World Heritage Site.

But last Tuesday around 9 p.m., it was unusually quiet when about 30 police officers wearing riot helmets sped into the cobblestone streets in vehicles resembling golf buggies. In front of a few foreign tourists, the police grabbed two young men in street clothes, put them in headlocks, and hauled them away to a nearby police station…

In Barkhor Square, police officers shooed the group of foreign tourists out of the square and back to their hotels. The officers were smiling, as if this was for the foreigners’ safety. Clearly, something was going on in the latest hot spot of Asian tourism.

A young European backpacker, gasping for breath in Lhasa’s 3,650-meter altitude, came running into a hotel looking for an Internet connection.

“There’s a big protest going on in the road to Sera monastery,” he said. “There are hundreds of people in the street, howling like wolves. They look like local people and they’re angry because the police have arrested some monks. I didn’t see them fighting with police. It didn’t look violent. The police chased some of them into small alleys to arrest them.”

The tourist said police picked up him and other foreigners, questioned them, and escorted them to the hotel district in unmarked cars, warning them to stay inside. The backpackers sent out personal reports on the Internet, even as uniformed police and men believed to be spies stood outside cafes watching them.

This follows other news this week that Indian authorities have blocked Tibetan demonstrators who planned a march to the Chinese border, and reports that the Chinese government is restricting access to Mt. Everest this year, a move widely seen as a response to an incident last year when a pro-Tibetan independence banner was displayed on the summit of the world’s highest peak.
- Peking Duck

The latest image, from today (March 15th), showing an armoured column moving through Lhasa, Tibet’s capital city:

Qiangba Pingcuo, Red China’s top official in Tibet, has denied that Lhasa is under martial law.

cough!bullshit!cough!

I note with interest the comments made by Li Changjiang, the Minister of the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (AQSIQ), regarding the food that foreign athletes may eat when they arrive for the Genocide Olympics later this year:

“Athletes and officials will not be allowed to carry their own food inside the Olympic Village during the Beijing Games, according to established international practice [...] Why would foreigners have to carry their own food when they can enjoy the absolutely safe food on offer? [...] I believe no one will let go of the chance to savor authentic Chinese food, and I don’t think they (foreign participants) will carry their own food.”

As one particularly bright bulb noted later:

“No need to say food will be totally safe, China is a country, known for stability and best food in the world.”

I’m sure this will be welcome news to the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are annually (that means every year) poisoned by Chinese food exports, and the tens of millions of Chinese who lose their breakfast every morning on the bus, after eating delicious and healthy traditional Chinese food.

In other news, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang says:

“China is continuously improving the work environment for foreign journalists, a move that has been well received by the international community [...] Any unbiased foreign reporters would notice that they are having more and more access and getting better service to make their reports on China [although despite this] a few foreign media also needed to reflect on their reporting style”. Qin said “some reporters had violated Chinese regulations, didn’t respect those they had interviewed, yet proceeded with interviews against the person’s wish. Some had even fabricated news stories”.

cough!bullshit!cough!

Lei Feng Day

The Chinese have always been great launderers. From washing trousers, to starching collars, to ironing shirts, this plucky little race of laundrypeople has been at the very forefront of laundering science for thousands of years. The Chinese themselves have observed that the greatest benefit to their civilisation came from their encounter with British sailors in 1462, and the realisation that clothing could come in more than one shape or size. And, for many international observers and space scientists, the big question of the new millenium has long been: “Will the new Chinese space station be a noodle shop or a laundrette?”

But few Chinese were as great at laundry as the hero Lei Feng, whose laundering exploits won him the acclaim of a nation and immortalised his name as a role model for all young Chinese citizens to follow.

Lei Feng was born to a family of poor peasants in Wangcheng district, Hunan Province, on December 18th 1940. His father died as the result of tripping over a small stick whilst running away from foreign tourists, and his mother committed suicide rather than have to smell the breath of the son of her landlord. The Communist Party then stepped in, and forcibly recruited the child soldier to the Red Army. His service in the Red Army was exemplary, and he described himself as “a revolutionary screw that never rusts”. Indeed, Lei Feng soon became famous throughout the Red Army as the best sock-washer that ever ran away from an enemy. Not only did he run away from a fight faster than any other soldier, he somehow always managed to find time to wash the feet of his fellow soldiers, darn their old socks, and study the works of the dictator Mao Zedong.

Tragically, Lei Feng died on August 15th, 1962, when his best friend drove a truck over him twice in “a complete accident, really it was, honestly he was like a brother to me, I have no idea how he became wrapped in barbed wire just before I accidentally stepped on the accelerator pedal, really”. The world that day lost the greatest washer of socks that humanity has ever known, and we will not see his like again.

Today, March 5th, is the day we remember that revolutionary hero, Lei Feng (seen here carrying washing for his fellow soldiers during some great Communist victory over the elected government of China)

Lei Feng - Revolutionary Sock Washer