Reading this post at One Free Korea makes me wish the author would start a blog called One Free China (or perhaps One Free China, Two Free Systems… whatever).:

Thanks to Dan at tdaxp for forwarding the link. Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state.
This scene, of police confiscating a sweet potato-seller’s bicycle for the sake of creating a "modern" appearance, was the one that incensed me. From some of my other readings, I suspect scenes like these are emblematic of the broader corruption in China, and the real flaw in its economic transformation–the fact that China’s ruling party controls its businesses and thus won’t use its legal system as a fair arbiter between the people and the state.Draw your own conclusions; I think that China’s transformation to a capitalist economy will mean, on balance, that fewer people live in these conditions. You need only think of North Korea to see that. Regrettable as these scenes are, they will disappear sooner if China continues to industrialize. The problem is that China’s transformation to capitalism is warped by the strangling tentacles of a corrupt state.
This scene, of police confiscating a sweet potato-seller’s bicycle for the sake of creating a "modern" appearance, was the one that incensed me. From some of my other readings, I suspect scenes like these are emblematic of the broader corruption in China, and the real flaw in its economic transformation–the fact that China’s ruling party controls its businesses and thus won’t use its legal system as a fair arbiter between the people and the state.

Gordon of the Horse’s Mouth just e-mailed me news that China’s ban on TypePad blogs has been lifted. He also posts:

It looks like TypePad hosted blogs are now back online, polluting the cyberworld with free thoughts.
I was starting to go blind from sitting here trying to organize the more than 300 photos that I took during my weekend trip into the mountains when I decided to take a break and browse through some of the updated blogs in my RSS reader. To my surprise, ALL of the blogs that I sift through on a daily basis were now updating - Typepad blogs, too!
So, I decided to try it out. I opened my blog, started clicking on all of the TypePad blog links that have been blacklisted for the last week and sure enough, they’re up and functioning again.
Sorry Blogspot, it looks like you still have to stand in the corner awhile longer.

It’s not quite all of TypePad that has been restored. He notes that Rebecca McKinnion’s blog (RConversation) is still blocked.

Confirmed from here in Shanghai, AsiaPundit, Glutter and Andres Gentry can all be read. RConversation and Lost Nomad (hosted by TypePad under the ‘blogs.com’ domain) cannot be accessed without proxies.

The ban first hit blogs hosted under TypePad domains and later extended to ‘blogs.com.’ I’m hoping that the ban on those will soon be lifted and that what we are now seeing is a reverse snowball effect. Another theory would be that whatever inspired the initial block was something posted on a ‘blogs.com’ site and that the full TypePad ban was just a step taken in shutting down that particular part of TypePad.

Those wanting to see if their site is blocked in this part of China (Shanghai) can also check using this trace route page.

Dovish Richard at the Peking Duck made a couple of statements I can agree with about a Washington Times item on China’s military buildup.:

This extremely tendentious screed from Bill Gertz in the beloved Moonie Times is going to raise a lot of eyebrows today. It’s practically a declaration of war against China. . .
Let me be blunt: This is incendiary propaganda. There is no balance to this piece, no consideration of other viewpoints and absolutely no sense of perspective. By that, I mean looking at it from the Chinese perspective — if they were to do any of the things the article makes us think are imminent, their economy would instantly go to hell in a handbasket. . .

In a couple of decades the WT article may make a fine basis for a Philip K Dick-style novel. Right now, it gravely misinterprets the goals of the Chinese leadership which is, simply put, to get rich. Further, it exaggerates the capability of the Chinese military vis-a-vis the United States. Jing notes.:

America’s military strength doesn’t rest on gadgetry, but rather on the strength of its personnel, the dedication to training, and the synergy of information and force. Warfare is a complex endeavour and the acquisition of newer equipment does not neccessarily provide advantange. Gertz would be better off in examining how the PLA as a whole is changing. What are the education levels of the officer corps? How effective is the PLA in retaining trained personnel that might otherwise head for the private sector? How quickly can decisions can be made and passed down the chain of command? How efficient is the general logistics department? How well can different combat units integrate their battlefield awareness? All of these are complicated questions that Gertz has not even addressed that are far more significant in the long term than simple hardware acquisitions.

All the hype about China is overblown. The WT item states:

The combination of a vibrant centralized economy, growing military and
increasingly fervent nationalism has transformed China into what many
defense officials view as a fascist state.

It disturbs me that a right-wing newspaper would buy into the concept of a "vibrant centralized economy," that should be an oxymoron. Growing military? Yes, but that’s based on a very low (and still low) base.

(more…)

KO, a Pakistan blogger, reciprocates the love:

In Pakistan, we have a slightly different democratic system from India, where you have the worlds biggest elections. You guys go to great lengths making sure everybody gets the chance to vote, wasting time and money sending voting machines on elephants and what not, while we have greatly streamlined the process. You see, Musharraf tells us he embodies the people’s desires, and so when he votes its the same as the whole country voting, so our process is much faster and terribly efficient. We hear that Bush is really envious of our system and has been asking Musharraf tips about the next US election.
…
Over the years our leaders have waged war and then taken halting steps to peace only to quickly run back to the safety in jingoism which their mediocrity demands, using hatred and fear for easy political gains. I have been watching this whole process from the sidelines for many years, wondering when the whole madness will end

US treasury Secretary John Snow last week said that China should revalue its currency "now." Jing provides us with a translation of Premier Wen’s response.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Sunday China must uphold the principles of independent initiative, controllability and gradual progress in pursuing RMB exchange rate reform.
"By ‘independent initiative,’ we mean to independently determine the modality, content and timing of the reform in accordance with China’s needs for reform and development," said the premier when addressing the opening ceremony of the Sixth ASEM Finance Ministers’ Meeting, held in Tianjin, a port city in North China.

In laymen’s terms, that roughly translates as a sod off to the recent statements by both members of Congress and the Bush administration over the currency issue.

The now banned-in-China Macroblog notes that Europe is more-or-less ok with this.:

.. it is up to China to decide the timing (of exchange rate reform) and we are waiting," [Deputy Finance Minister Caio K. Koch-Weser of Germany] said…
RT Hon Des Browne, chief secretary to the British Treasury, said he was "pleased" by what the Chinese premier said, adding, "We will continue to be supportive of China’s ambition in this regard."
"It is very important and very good that Chinese leaders paid great attention to this matter (currency reform) and I’m sure this matter will develop in time," Rastislav Sulla, counselor/head of the trade and economic department, the Slovakian Embassy to China,told Xinhua.

To defend the Chinese side, it is only reasonable that the country put proper hedging mechanisms in place ahead of any change in its currency regime. To defend the US side, the slow-moving CPC is taking far too long to do this.

Torn & Frayed in Manila has come across a site of interesting links from the Philippines - included in which is a link to the site of the Philippine’s only bagpiper-for-hire.

My name is Roy Macgregor-Esposo Espiritu, the Philippines’ first and only Filipino bagpiper to date. I am a Filipino of Scottish descent from the Macgregors of Nairn, Scotland. Growing up in a family that is well in touch with its Scottish roots, I grew up listening to the music of Scotland and the Great Highland Bagpipes.

This boggles the mind - not that there’s a piper in the Philippines, but because Pinoy Piper has a monopoly and the product is not crap. That is a true rarity. Sample MP3s are here.

Kevin in Pudong, Shanghai’s attempt at recreating Singapore’s CBD, presents a heavily hyphenated translation of a Paul Lin article in defense of spli—sm.:

China recently unveiled its “Anti-Se—-ion Law.” To tell you the truth, when we talk about unification or division, both are developments “under heaven,” just as in the opening lines of the “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”: “the world under heaven, after a long period of division, tends to unite; while after a long period of union, it tends to divide.” Thus, there is really no use in striving to attain either. So what good could possibly come of this Anti-Secession Law, which is technically a call to war? In fact, an overview of Chinese history has led me to believe that the division of China wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

The title of this post is intended to be serious. ESWN reveals how news of the assault on the villagers of Shengyou, and the video recording of the incident, became global.:

The Beijing News reporter working on the Shengyou incident was also shut down when all coverage was banned even though he getting close to the culprits.  So he has also posted his field notes on the Internet.  This reporter enumerated his dealings with government officials during his work, and this is quite illuminating.
One should not count on this state of things to last too long.  It will be a matter of time before all reporters receive the order that no field notes shall be published outside.  Meanwhile, this is a brief opening in the history of Chinese media. 
Please be mindful that we don’t even see these types of field notes in the mainstream media in the western world.  Wouldn’t you want to know just how ‘journalists’ such as Judith Miller (NYT), Elizabeth Bumiller (NYT) and Sue Schmidt (WaPo) write their reports?  You may then understand how an ‘exclusive’ is obtained on a piece of politically motivated propaganda.  Or, from the other extreme, how Seymour Hersh (New Yorker) and Mark Danner (New York Review of Books) get their information?

Reas the rest, including translation of the reporter’s notes.

Here is an interesting analysis of the Time issue on China. What does the picture say to you?