Tag Archives: China

Boom & Bust: The Story of Eco-cities in China

25 May

Every once in a while I like to ruffle people’s feathers by calling China the most progressive country in the world. Is it? I wouldn’t even know how to begin qualifying that statement, but certainly, from a quantitative view, China is the Vin Diesel of reform: fast and furious, hit and miss.

All aboard the bus to a greener future in China!

One thing I admire about the Chinese is their sense of urgency. In a country increasingly eco-ambitious, the government’s efforts to tackle social and environmental issues have been forthright. History’s largest urbanization has forced the CCP’s hand, but it has– at least domestically– shown plenty of bravado.

The Project 2049 Institute recently took a look at the boom-and-bust nature of China’s on-going efforts to build sustainable eco-cities. The article, “The Rise of China’s Eco-cities: A Harbinger of a Sustainable Future?”, does a laudable job of providing some perspective to the country’s pursuits.

If successfully implemented, China’s efforts at constructing eco-cities would not only revamp the urban landscape and improve high-density living conditions, but also reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. China’s eco-construction sector is an attractive, profitable investment opportunity despite the existence of bureaucratic boundaries, but such projects are at risk of failure due to abandonment, unaffordability, poor management, and lack of local expertise.

China had as many as 168 eco-projects underway by last year, according to the institute.  In a country nearing the brink of complete ecological collapse, the scale of the solution must match that of the problem: massive.

Now, there’s a lot of rhetoric to sort through when it comes to discussing the environment in China and how it’s handling eco-crises. Let me say this, while the government certainly didn’t do itself any favors in Copenhagen a few years back, it did what it had to. As long as the economy is stable, the CCP will have plenty of spare change to drop on projects like eco-cities and to invest in green technology. These guys aren’t imbeciles. They can see the writing on the wall– it’s in green crayon. A child could read it.

The message, to paraphrase GG, is clear: “Green is good.” It’s going to line the pockets of the next great superpower. So, yes, the question so often repeated is a valid one: Is China going to lead the world’s green economy?

Tough to say at this point– but I haven’t heard of 168 eco-cities under construction in the US.

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China: A Jasmine-less Country

11 May

Old residential homes in the heart of Shanghai are demolished to make way for new high-rises.

The New York Times has a fantastic piece about the scope of CCP efforts to sanitize the country of anything and everything jasmine. Read it here.

One of the least obvious and most heart-wrenching side effects of the government’s obsessive elimination of subversion has once again befallen the downtrodden proletariat. As Andrew Jacobs and Jonathan Ansfield point out,

Even if Chinese cities have been free from any whiff of revolutionary turmoil, the war on jasmine has not been without casualties, most notably the ever-expanding list of democracy advocates, bloggers and other would-be troublemakers who have been pre-emptively detained by public security agents. They include the artist provocateur Ai Weiwei, who remains in police custody after being seized at Beijing’s international airport last month.

Less well known are the tribulations endured by the tawny-skinned men and women who grow ornamental jasmine here in Daxing, a district on the rural fringe of the capital. They say prices have collapsed since March, when the police issued an open-ended jasmine ban at a number of retail and wholesale flower markets around Beijing.

As it is and always has been, it is those getting by on the bare minimum in China that face the greatest hardship. The justifications for their suffering often remain unknown.

Zhen Weizhong, 47, who tends 2,000 jasmine plants on about an acre of rented land here, said the knee-high potted variety was wholesaling at about 75 cents, one-third last year’s price. “Even if I could sell them, I would lose money on every plant,” he said, glancing forlornly at a mound of unsold bushes whose blossoms were beginning to fade. Asked if he knew about the so-called Jasmine Revolution and whether it had played a role in collapsing demand, Mr. Zhen shrugged. “I don’t know anything about politics,” he said. “I don’t have time to watch television.”

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CCP Will Not Fall

21 Feb

 

Police talk to a couple of men filming interviews in Chengdu's central Tianfu square while I was on vacation there last year.

Don’t hold your breath. Recent news of protests in China will not amount to revolutionary change as seen in the Middle East. But damn you, CCP, for perpetuating this interminable argumentative paradox.

 

It’s safe to say that most foreigners who have earned the expatriate title living in China have a love-hate relationship with the country. Obviously, most find enough weight on the pro side of the scale to remain. Still the vicissitudes of daily life provide ample sway.

While in China, friends and I seem to spend an inordinate amount of time blasting the inconsistent rationality of most things Chinese. Yet, as soon as I return home, the tables turn. I find myself unwittingly and yet seemingly forced to defend China, warts and all.

A perfect example of this behavioral paradox manifested itself this weekend. I was reading Michael Turton’s blog, a man I generally agree with and find quite insightful. He posted something to the effect of the Confucius Institute is a covert international spy network set up by the CCP. It was bold, and reaching; I saved the link.

China’s lack of an exportable (soft) culture is seen as a huge hole in its PR toolbox. There are plans aplenty to rectify this. For instance, the government has promised millions in funding to try to set up a 24-hour English news channel a la BBC or CNN. The idea being that it could spread the “China voice,” more effectively exposing the world to the country’s (read: the CCP’s) opinion on international matters. The Confucius Institute, essentially a mandarin language center, has been the party’s most successful attempt at garnering an allegedly non-political and respectable Chinese presence abroad.

It should come as no surprise that candidates hoping to work for the institute are thoroughly vetted by the supervising body. Foremost is the increasingly illogical yet persistent fear of a country offering a visa to a Chinese who might defect and never return home. But beyond that, I am sure the powers that be want those representing the country to be loyal and patriotic– as would any state-run enterprise abroad.

Stories of spy games and blacklisting seem to me unsubstantiated at best and not surprising to say the least. To assume government organizations abroad are not players in international policy is foolish. Not to sound like a conspiracy theorist myself, but I think US history (most notably Central and South America) assures us that our own “national interests” have met these means over the years.

So right as I was about to post this rebuttal, the CCP went ahead and made itself look like an asshole again locking up alleged dissidents for fear of Middle East-inspired protests. I certainly don’t condone or support this effort, yet it also doesn’t surprise me.

Unlike the Northern African nations who are just now realizing they played their cards wrong, the CCP has China by the balls. The New York Times and others calling the crack down a show of “nervousness” is more than a stretch. Reports peg the number of arrests and lockdowns at around 90. Mind you that Chinese authorities could arrest the entire population of Bahrain, Libya, Tunisia and Egypt combined and there would still be 1.2 billion people going about business as usual.

The amazing, albeit horrifying, aspect of these events is the individual willingness within the police state to crack down on dissidents. There must be at least a few intelligence officers who go home at night and scrub their hands until they bleed. But for whatever reason, I imagine that number to be practically infinitesimal. The fact that unknown streams of normal netizens log on as pro bono nationalist hackers is a quick reminder of how strong support for the party remains.

So come what may of these arrests, the CCP isn’t going to flinch. These North African regimes are falling because they have failed to provide basic societal needs– security and opportunity. While they have ignored festering tensions among the masses, the CCP has not. There is a brutal mastery in manipulation of public accord, a wave of the wand China knows well.

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Sex in China: Adultery Provisions

17 Feb

China’s top court is about to make a ruling on the legal rights of husbands, wives, and mistresses. The very fact that adultery has emerged publicly as a social issue highlights a huge contradiction in Chinese society, one most citizens try to ignore.

There are plenty of dark corners in China and Taiwan.

Chinese will be the first to tell you that they are a very conservative and traditional culture. This is a flat-out lie.

Now, I could devote my first novel to this topic, but let me be short: The Chinese are equally as perverted and promiscuous as the next clan.

Sex shops (成人用品) are everywhere, as are the red-hair salons. I’ve seen businessmen readjusting their ties as they walk out of a lunchtime “haircut” without the slightest out-of-the-ordinary on their face. I’ve been in Family Mart, one of the largest convenience stores in China and Taiwan, where a large dildo in various colors was available at checkout next to the gum and lighters.

Sex is an integral part of society and often a direct measure of male status.

The adultery endemic is laughed off when discussed among friends. But its implications stretch into an overwhelming majority of households.

I know men who rent apartments for 二奶 (lit. second lady or second milk, which is more disturbing; also called 小老婆, little wife). Sometimes their wives live in the same city, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes the wives know, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes there are no children, or a family at home, or a family in both homes. As long as the man is winning that bread, the charade goes on.

Sex is business. Some of my closest friends closed countless deals in karaoke houses known for their female escorts. One of the largest in a former city was like a coliseum, with a stage in the center. Young women came out solo or in sets to sing, to dance, or just to saunter up and down the stage wearing a beauty-pageant sash or ribbon with a number on it. Back in the room, you ordered to your liking.

Now, mind you this doesn’t always mean prostitution. Most of the time, these girls’ primary job is to keep pouring drinks until someone embarrasses themselves. If you hold out the longest, you earn that deal.

I knew a young lady who once told me she would be ashamed to marry a man who didn’t have at least one mistress. She believed it would show she chose an undesirable or unsuccessful mate. She also told me that she would get married within six months of that conversation (though single at the time), and that Chinese had a deeper understanding of love than foreigners.

None of this really bothers me. The exploitation of it is fucked. But just as often, these young ladies are exploiting these 土包子 (derogatory term for the newly rich) as The New York Times article mentions. It’s a complicit agreement, as is the cover-up. “It’s our culture, you could never understand,” Chinese will tell you. It’s a common refrain when discussing the less rosy side of rapid development in the country.

It’s much the same in Taiwan. I know plenty of businessmen here who jet-set across the strait with fully functioning families on each side. I know PR guys can’t ink a client without sending a portfolio of showgirls for events. Not to mention “dirty KTVs” and enough ”love hotels” (fancy rooms-by-the-hour) to house half the population.

Traditional is as traditional does. They say the foreigners are the dirty pervs. Don’t let ‘em fool ya.

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The Perils of Free Speech

14 Feb

A “controversial legal action” is testing the definition of free speech in Taiwan, and it speaks to the role speech plays in a mass media democracy.

According to the Taipei Times,

The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office on Friday began handling a request by the Department of Health (DOH) to prosecute seven talk show pundits and a physician for allegedly spreading rumors about the influenza A(H1N1) flu vaccine… Contending that their sensational allegations made people reluctant to get vaccinated and left some vulnerable to severe bouts of flu and even death… If indicted and found guilty, each of the pundits is subject to a fine of up to NT$500,000 (US$17,100).

Freedom of speech is a necessary caveat to any successful experiment in democracy, or so the old line holds. But what if that isn’t completely true?

A friend emailed me the Time article, “Why China Does Capitalism Better than the US”  a few weeks ago. I found it an accurate and balanced account of economic development on the other side of the strait, and the facts are hard to argue. “Capitalism with Chinese principles” has not only endured the economic crisis, but it has laid the infrastructure for continued prosperity in the next decade.

Watching Obama’s State of the Union address, I felt it was all too disconnected. It seemed like he was trying to write the next great speech, trying to pander to political constituencies, trying to show the big picture at a time when Congress can’t trigger a point-and-shoot.

Meanwhile, China is in position to lead the world economy in solar, wind, and hydrological energy. It’s already laid the track for the world’s best train system and is rapidly reforming its education and health care systems. As Francis Fukyama told Financial Times in an op-ed titled, “US democracy has little to teach China,”

Many Chinese see their weathering of the financial crisis as a vindication of their own system, and the beginning of an era in which US-style liberal ideas will no longer be dominant.

But what does this have to do with freedom of speech? Attached at the bottom of the article my friend sent me was a link to Scott Adams’ blog and a post titled “Freedom of Data.” Adams went on to talk about how freedom of speech in China is limited in its socio-political system for the benefit of the greater good, an undoubtedly contentious point.

But taking a look at the situation here in Taiwan, it is rather refreshing to see media members and pundits held accountable for false information detrimental to the populace at large. We were reminded of how vitriol can lead to violence with the assassination attempt in Arizona. Still, political pundits in the US are seldom criticized for incorrect or misleading information, let alone punished for the consequences.

Maybe American democracy has something to learn from this side of the globe.

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